Happily Never After
by Miss Suger Unicorn
Summary: Lola Lorie was just a loner orphan who had a slight habit of borrowing things that didn't belong to her, but when the savior broke the curse she discovered who she really was, and she knew that it was time to step back into the position that was taken from her 28 years ago. But will all her morals escape her when she meets a boy who only looks after himself, like she used to? PanOC
1. The Return of Magic

Chapter One – The Return of Magic

XXX

In the town of Storybrooke, a sixteen year old girl was nosily digging through one of her fellow students' sketchbook, strangely fascinated by all the precise, beautiful drawings and wondering where he learned to draw like it. She didn't know the boy much, but he was always drawing, so she figured that it was about time she saw if it was a waste of time or if he was actually good at something.

He was brilliant at drawing, and Lola Lorie wished that she could keep one of his drawing for herself. This, of course, was out of the question. Although she didn't have any parents or guardian, she knew that thieving was wrong. One would think that taking someone's sketchbook out of their backpack and bringing it to their foster home was considered thieving, but Lola named it _borrowing_.

It wasn't like she wasn't going to give it back. She always promised herself that she would give the things she took back – unless it was food, which she would gladly eat if it was good, or if the thing broke, because if it was easily broken than the person shouldn't miss it in the first place.

Lola closed the sketchbook and placed it on her bedside table. There was no one else in the foster home except her, which made it more lonely than normal. The foster mom was never actually there, except when she cooked and cleaned for the house, but other than that the foster mom and the little girl never spoke or made eye contact. Lola was always alone, for as long as she could remember.

She had no friends, but that wasn't her fault. Everyone in Storybrooke lived by routine, but Lola was more of an adventurous sort of girl, and she wanted nothing more than to leave the town – but something always stopped her. For some reason, she knew that leaving Storybrooke wouldn't be good news for her, so she never even went close the the boundary line.

She wasn't the only one who noticed odd things happening in Storybrooke. A little ten year old boy named Henry Mills, the mayor's adoptive son. He was a loner, like her, and when he figured out that she, too, was abandoned by her real family, he had instantly took a liking to her, and followed her around everywhere. There was nothing wrong with the kid, except that he was six years younger than her, so she wasn't as close to him as she could have been.

He was weird, too, again, like her. He carried around a big block of a book – she _despised _reading – about fairytale stories. At first she thought it was sweet – a little kid so interested in bedtime stories – but then he started to actually _believe _that the characters in the book were real. She remembered awkwardly sitting next to him as he pointed out who was who.

Snow White was his kind teacher, Mary Margaret; his own adoptive mother was the Evil Queen; Jiminy Cricket was his counselor; and so on and so on.

She had faked a smile and wondered if it would be alright to call him crazy, which she decided against when the kid looked up at her with bright eyes. Lola might be tactless, but that didn't stop her from having a heart.

"So who are you?" she teased. "You're cute enough to be Pinocchio, but you're not an obsessive liar."

The wind rushed by them, flushing his cheeks as he smiled up at her.

"Oh, I'm not a fairytale character," Henry had said knowledgeably.

"Then what are you doing here?" she raised one eyebrow at the kid's seriousness.

"I'm the child of the Savior," Henry told her. "Emma, Snow White's kid. She's going to be coming here soon to break the curse."

Everything he said went right over her head except one thing. "Snow White has a daughter?" The idea was laughable as Lola remembered the little black haired Disney character locked in a glass coffin.

"Yes," Henry said. Behind the bench they were sitting on, the clock tower chimed three times, making them both jump. "I have to go home." Henry exclaimed hurriedly, getting to his feet and closing the book.

"But you haven't told me who I was yet," Lola smiled. "Or should I guess? Am I Gretel? Rapunzel? Ooh, am I Cinderella?"

Henry had smiled at her, and with all seriousness, he said, "Not even close. You're Goldilocks."

Before she could process this, he tugged his giant backpack up his shoulder and took off towards his house, where he would be tucked in and told that he was loved.

Lola still remembered that day. It was the day everything changed. Henry had been missing for a while and when he was finally found, he had brought home a woman. The woman was his real mother, Emma Swan, and somehow her appearance changed everything. Lola had never heard the clock move until Emma was there.

The blonde girl shook her head, clearing the memory. Strange things happened now that Emma was here, but that didn't mean that she was the Savior. Lola refused to believe that she was Goldilocks – the naive little girl who never got a happy ending. She had hoped that if she were a fairytale character, then she would at least have a good life in the story, but apparently none of her lives were supposed to be happy.

"Look at you," she said to herself. "Believing in what a little boy said? There's no such thing as magic or talking bears, stupid. Keep this up and you _will _be as naive as Goldilocks."

She hopped off her bed and padded her way across her room. She felt restless, like something was about to happen. Things have been happening, one problem piling up on top of another. Ever since Emma Swan came people were murdered, people found true love, people woke up from comas, and everything was being questioned. It wasn't Emma's fault, Lola knew, because despite the lady ditching her baby before he could even speak, she was nice.

Lola sighed, picking through her few clothing and slipping it on. She wouldn't stay in her room all day, that much she knew.

Lola brushed off her blue blouse and faded jeans before looking at her large mirror over her dresser. She wasn't stupid, she knew why Henry was so insistent that she was Goldilocks. With her curly gold hair that reached the middle of her back, large gray eyes, and round face, she looked frighteningly similar to the way the young character was usually portrayed, but they had significant differences. For one, Goldilocks looked to be about nine years old, while Lola was sixteen. Second, Goldilocks usually wore little dresses and she wore her hair in two pigtails, while Lola liked jeans, combat boots, and to leave her hair down. And third, Lola knew when to cross the line when it came to borrowing – she would _never _spend a night in someone else's bed without their permission.

That's another thing that unnerved her. Henry might be crazy with all the characters-are-real-people nonsense, but the characters he assigned to everyone were usually very similar. Lola knew that her and Goldilocks shared some personality traits – like being extremely picky with their things and borrowing stuff. Mary Margaret was nice enough to be Snow White, and pretty enough. Emma Swan looked like the kind of person who would be able to save them. Regina, the Evil Queen, apparently, wasn't evil as far as Lola knew, but she was brutal and ruthless. And Archie Hopper was very much like Jiminy Cricket with all his wise, moral statements.

Lola shook her head. "You are _not _Goldilocks."

Without a second glace at her appearance, she marched out of her room and left her lonely foster house.

XXX

_The night was dark and cold, the wind blowing so hard that the poor fourteen year old girl was stumbling as she tried to stay on the dirt road. She hardly wore any clothing except a tatter blue dress, white stockings, and little black shoes. Her blonde hair was curled so much that it barely passed her shoulders, and it was whipping in her pale face and flying around her. The woods around her were disturbingly quiet, and she was losing hope in finding a place to stay. She was beginning to think that the dirt road led to no where but more suffering, which she didn't think she could handle._

_ Tears slipped down her face when she tripped over a rock hidden beneath all the dead leaves and dirt. Laying there on the ground with her face and clothes streaked with dirt, she felt all her hope of finding a better place leave her, so she curled in a protective ball and wept._

_ She only stood there for three minutes before she heard the rustle of a cloak, and the soft thud as someone walked quietly towards her. Fear gripped her heart and she lurched her head from the ground, gazing up._

_ The person standing above her wasn't threatening in the slightest, which instantly made the girl breathe a sigh of relief. It was just a boy – probably ten years old. He wore a thick brown coat that was probably made out of bear skin, thick black boots, a furry scarf, and large brown pants. Under his furry cap she could see his thick black hair trying to escape. She couldn't help but think that he reminded her of a bear cub, and she smiled slightly at the thought._

_ "Who're you?" she asked, raising herself into a sitting position and smiling kindly._

_ "My name is Willis," the kid said, frowning at her as though he vaguely recognized her. "Who're you?"_

_ "I'm Goldilocks," she said._

_ The boy's eyes widened at that, and he gazed at her with awe. "Princess Goldilocks?" he mused. "You're the princess?"_

_ "Not anymore," Goldilocks told him, her bottom lip quivering as she wiped the tears from her eyes sadly. "I ran away."_

_ The boy's eyes softened and he knelt down so that they were the same height. He had little brown eyes that looked kind, and his round cheeks were flushed from the cold. He looked like such a sweet kid. "Why? Did someone hurt you?"_

_ "No, nothing like that," she said. "I'm just tired of being stuck in the palace and not being able to explore anything around me. My mother didn't get that, so I left. I still haven't found a place I want to stay and... and I'm afraid that I might not ever."_

_ She said that last part tearfully as the full impact of her decision hit her. She would never want to go back, but at least she had a soft bed and food there, but the future ahead of her seemed bleak and full of misery._

_ "Well, you found the right path to take a nap in, then," the boy smiled at her, showing two sweet dimples on each side. His teeth were large for a kid, like a animal's, but that only made him all the more different and special to Goldilocks._

_ "Is that so?" she said. "And why is that?"_

_ "Because I'm gonna be your knight in shining armor," the boy said proudly, putting his fist to his chest. "You can stay in my house for as long as you like, Ex-Princess Goldilocks."_

_ She hardly let herself believe it. "Are you serious?"_

_ "Of course," the boy smiled. "My parents won't mind having a pretty girl like you around."_

_ Goldilocks blushed at the compliment, but was pleased. "Well, if your parents don't mind, Willis," she allowed. "I guess I'll stay with you."_

_ Willis grinned at her before standing to hit feet and holding out a chubby little hand for her. "I'll lead the way, it's not far from here."_

_ With absolutely no hesitation, she grabbed his hand, ready to start her very first adventure._

_ As they walked, Goldilocks didn't feel alone and lost anymore, but actually excited. The boy walked calmly even when the wind bit at his face and pushed him as hard as it could, like he had faced this sort of weather all his life._

_ "Have you always lived in the woods?" Goldilocks asked him._

_ "No," the boy shrugged. "Me and my parents used to live in a little village, but then we got poor and had to leave before we starved. We take care of ourselves out here now."_

_ The story sounded so sad, but he didn't look heartbroken in the slightest, so she assumed it was alright to press on._

_ "Do you ever miss it?" she asked. "The village? Being around people? The parades and the events?"_

_ "Our village didn't have any of those things," the boy admitted. "Our king and queen ignored us and crimes happened everyday. I loved it there, but I can't stop what happened."_

_ "The royals sound like terrible people," Goldilocks declared. "Did you ever meet them?"_

_ "No," Willis said shortly._

_ "Would you ever get revenge on them for ignoring your home?"_

_ Willis glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. "I don't know," he said. "Would you?"_

_ Her opinion wasn't asked much, so the question took her by surprise. She thought for a moment, and instantly got her answer. "I would," she said firmly. "No one deserves to be ignored, especially by the people who are supposed to be taking care of them."_

_ They walked in silence after that, Goldilocks too busy mulling over her own words to think up a conversation. Her mother was who she was thinking about when she said that, her own mother who was supposed to be taking care of her was too busy with her own affairs._

_ "We're here," Willis said, gesturing forward._

_ Goldilocks looked ahead of her and gasped loudly. She didn't know what she was expecting, but a cute little cottage wasn't it. It had wooden walls and a roof made of stones, trees towered over it on both sides, covering it from bad weather, and the windows were wide open as the wind rattled them and made them smack against the walls on either side._

_ "Shoot!" Willis exclaimed, rushing forward. "I always forget to shut the windows."_

_ Goldilocks followed him in wonderment. The cottage was obviously homemade, but she couldn't even think about how long it must have taken the poor family to build it. She had servants and maids doing everything for her: putting on her clothes, combing out her hair, opening her _doors_... she never had to work hard in her life._

_ "It's beautiful," she said with honesty. It wasn't a castle, but somehow the knowledge of knowing that it was made by Willis and his two parents made it even better._

_ Willis said nothing as he slammed the windows shut and locked them together. When he turned around, he wouldn't look her in the eye. She smiled a bit at that; shyness was always something she found endearing._

_ "Can I get a tour?" she urged._

_ "Uh, sure," Willis said, gesturing towards the wooden door. "There isn't much here."_

_ She opened the door and let a gasp escape her throat. "I've never seen anything like it before!" All around her she could see that everything was precious to the family, and that they were really close. There was a shallow round table with three chairs around it, a fireplace with three armchairs, and a shelf with three columns of books, the top having the thickest and the bottom having the thinnest._

_ "Yeah, we all have our own things," Willis said. "We're not good at sharing, it usually ends in a fight, so we know what belongs to who by the size."_

_ Goldilocks walked into the house, her little black shoes tracking mud and dirt onto the clean wooden floor. It was cold in the house, and the chairs didn't look comfortable, but it was a step closer towards her happily ever after._

_ "It's cute," she told Willis, who nodded and shut the door, locking it. "Do you have anything to eat? I'm starving."_

_ Willis blinked at her abrupt question. "Er – yeah, I do. I don't suppose royalty has ever tasted porridge?"_

_ Goldilocks tilted her head to the side with curiosity. "No, I'm afraid I've never heard of it. Is it any good?"_

_ "It's my favorite," Willis said. "Though I've never made it before. But I've watched my mama make it enough times to know how it goes."_

_ The boy took off his large coat and hung it on the smallest hanger, he then kicked off his boots and tore off his scarf and hat. She giggled when his thick black hair stuck up in all directions, making him look scruffy. She was never allowed to look so disheveled, but she supposed she looked worse considering her little episode in the middle of the dirt road._

_ Willis grinned at her. "There's a bathroom upstairs if you need to clean up," he told her. "You can use my mama's clothes if you like."_

_ "Thank you," Goldilocks smiled, before racing up the stairs without further instruction. There were four doors on the second floor. One of the doors reached the ceiling, another was a normal size, and another was a bit smaller, but tall enough that she could walk right through without bending down. The door nearest the stairs was a normal size, so she tried that one first. Sure enough, it was a bathroom._

_ The bathroom was small with a bucket full of yellow slop and a large silver tub she assumed they took baths in. Hesitantly, she approached the little bucket, leaned down, and sniffed. The most awful scent reached her nostrils and she jerked up, holding her nose. "Pee-yew!" she hissed, the smell making the fine hair on her pale arms stand up._

_ She took a step away from it and continued to look around the strange room. The only other things that were in the room was a giant window that was locked and a large wardrobe that could have fit four people inside of it._

_ She opened the wardrobe doors and was greeted with a large clean mirror on the far right and three smaller doors on the left. She pulled open the door farthest to the right. It was full of large, thick clothing that when she tried on hung off her body._

_ "Too big," she murmured to herself, putting it back._

_ She opened the next door and pulled out a flowery dress that flowed around her when she tried it on. "Too floral."_

_ Finally, she opened the last door and was greeted with clothing that was the size of the boy downstairs. She tried on one of the best looking shirts in there and examined herself in the mirror. The blue cotton shirt hugged her body, but was a bit too tight around the shoulders, so she stretched out her arms, and her heart stopped when a ripping sound tore through the quiet room. Heart beating quickly, she yanked off the shirt and almost sobbed when the entire shirt was almost split in two except for a small piece of thread connecting the halves._

_ "Too small," she squeaked._

_ She jumped when someone knocked on the door._

_ "Hello?" the boy's voice floated through the cracks. "Is everything alright? Your porridge is done."_

_ Goldilocks gulped and stuffed the shirt in the back of the wardrobe. "Uh – yeah, everything is fine. Why don't you go and make sure the porridge is just right?"_

_ There was a pause, where Goldilocks stared wide-eyed at the door, hoping the boy would leave. Then - "okay. Hurry up, though. Porridge gets cold _really _quick."_

_ "Sure," Goldilocks tried not to sound too relieved._

_ When the sound of him going down the stairs faded, Goldilocks snapped the doors shut and backed away from them. Looking at herself, she figured that her clothes were better than the family's, and all she had to do was wash off all of the dirt to make it look better. With that in mind, she felt better. Her hair was wild and her eyes were swollen red, but she still looked presentable. Her mother would be proud._

_ Goldilocks closed the wardrobe doors after scratching and pulling at all the dirt clumps in her hair and went down the stairs to fill her stomach._

_XXX_

"Where were you, kid?" Lola ruffled Henry's soft brown hair affectionately when she seen him sitting alone in the park. "People were looking for you all morning."

"I was with Emma," Henry shrugged. His brown eyes were down-cast, and he didn't look like he was in the mood to talk, but Lola sat next to him anyway.

"You really have to stop running away," she told him. "You nearly gave half the town a heart attack."

Again, Henry shrugged.

"Hey," Lola said softly, giving his shoulder a gentle bump with her own. "Why so down, Henry? Isn't Operation Cobra becoming a success?"

Operation Cobra was what he called his mission to save Storybrooke from the curse the Evil Queen cast. Cobras had nothing to do with fairy-tales, of course, but it seemed to make sense to Henry, so Lola didn't question it. Luckily, what she said was a good thing, and he finally responded with actual sentences.

"Emma was going to leave," Henry said, his cute little voice sounding so terribly sad that Lola wrapped her arms around him immediately. "She doesn't want to be the savior, but she _has _to, or you and everyone else will be sad forever."

"Oh, Henry," Lola said, unable to think of anything else to say. "We're not unhappy. Emma isn't responsible for how we live our lives."

"You _are _unhappy," Henry insisted. "You're not supposed to be an orphan, you're supposed to be a princess ruling a kingdom."

"I thought I was Goldilocks," she raised one eyebrow at him.

"You _are_," he said. "Goldilocks is a princess."

Lola felt a smile tug on her lips. "If I was a princess then why was I stealing from a family of bears in the middle of the woods?"

"Because you ran away," Henry said with his blunt matter-of-fact tone. "Your mom wouldn't let you go on adventures so you didn't want to rule a kingdom. You got lost and the baby bear found you."

Lola frowned at him. She loved fairy tales – she used to read them to herself every night – and she knew for a fact that Goldilocks didn't get found by Baby Bear until _after _she used his stuff and slept in his bed.

"I think your book has it's stories mixed up, kid," she informed him.

"No! It has everything exactly right!" Henry insisted angrily. "You don't believe me either!"

"Of course I believe you!" Lola lied.

"You're lying," Henry said. "You don't believe me or you would have _done _something!"

"What would I do?" she asked him.

"Help me convince Emma," Henry asked. "She listens to you."

This wasn't true. The only times Emma listened to the younger blonde was when Lola told her things about Henry – like how he loved to read, how his favorite thing to chew on was gum, how he liked cinnamon in his hot chocolate, and how he always took the long way back home because he didn't want to spend much time with the mayor. Lola also told Emma how before she came, Henry was always sad and thought no one loved him. She thinks that was the reason why Emma truly stayed in Storybrooke, because she knew that Henry needed her.

It wasn't that Emma didn't like Lola or anything, but the age difference was significant, more than the age difference between Lola and Henry. Emma couldn't be friends with a sixteen year old girl – their experiences were different, their ways of looking at life were different, and so therefore their opinions were different. Lola was much too innocent for someone as cold and distant as the sheriff.

That was one of the reasons why Lola was so lonely, too. She was never around kids her own age, except the routine-obsessed kids at her tiny high school. She was mostly around adults who looked at her like she was immature – a little girl they were fond of.

"Oh, Henry," Lola said sadly. "I can't do that."

"See?" Henry said. "You don't believe!"

Henry ran off, leaving his book behind in his sadness. Lola sighed and grabbed it. It was surprisingly light for a book so large, and the cover was rough under her fingertips. She had seen the book a hundred times before, but she had never actually looked inside. Curious, she flipped it open to a random page and gasped.

On the right page were a bunch of tiny words, but on the left was a large picture of a girl with hair so curled it barely passed her shoulders, large gray eyes, and a round face. The picture looked painted, so the features weren't detailed, but even so...

For the first time in about a year, Lola let herself listen to Henry.

He had been right about weird things happening in Storybrooke. There were no crickets or any sort of animals, the clock had never ticked before Emma, the supposed savior, came, and as hard as she tried to remember, she couldn't think of the time she first came to the town. She didn't remember ever meeting Mary Margaret, or the mayor, or her foster mom, or Ruby, or... or _anyone_. Her life before Emma had been as routine as her classmates, yet she had never questioned it before right then.

Gazing around the cute little town, Lola felt like it was her first time ever seeing.

_You're Goldilocks_.

She gaped at the picture in her arms in wonder. The girl, Goldilocks – _her_ – was holding a bowl of what Lola assumed to be porridge. Beside her was a small boy with thick black hair and flushed cheeks, and even though it was painted she could see his brown eyes gleaming with wickedness.

XXX

_"This is delicious," Goldilocks smiled at the small ten year old boy in front of her. "I can't believe mother never thought of telling the servants to cook this."_

_ Willis nodded mutely, glancing at the grandfather clock next to the now roaring fireplace. It was six o'clock._

_ "Where are your parents?" the blonde princess asked the boy, swinging her feet on the big chair. She was sitting on the largest chair, which was uncomfortably hard under her bottom, but she forced herself not to complain._

_ "They'll be here at any moment," Willis said calmly. "They went off hunting."_

_ "Oh," Goldilocks wished that she could have come earlier, so that she could have joined them. She'd never hunted before, but the thought of sending arrows flying excited her. "Is it easy to hunt?"_

_ "It depends on what you're hunting," Willis said, stirring his porridge and smirking. He glanced up at her, and the look in his eyes made Goldilocks slightly uncomfortable. "But sometimes... yes, it's terribly easy."_

_ "Oh," she said again, not sure how to respond to such a vague statement._

_ She was saved from thinking up another conversation when Willis suddenly got to his feet. "I'm sorry – you asked for a tour earlier. Would you still like one?"_

_ "Of course!" Goldilocks beamed, dropping her wooden spoon in her empty bowl and hopping off her chair._

_ "Follow me, then," he said, holding out a hand for her._

_ She took his small hand in her own and he tugged her until they both went up the stairs, and she was again greeted with the four odd doors._

_ "This one is my dad's room," Willis went to the second door, which was the largest, and pushed it open. It groaned and squeaked at having to move, but when it stopped it looked just as tall and intimidating as before._

_ The room made Goldilocks feel like she walked into a baby giant's bedroom. Everything was larger than it should be – the dresser, the bed, the carpet, and even the closet door. Goldilocks was fourteen, and like any little girl, when she seen a large bed like that, she couldn't resist pouncing on it. She face-planted on the mattress, expecting to bounce high, but it only stirred a little under her before becoming still._

_ "Ouch," Goldilocks sat up, rubbing her sore nose. "Does that bed have rocks in it?"_

_ Willis laughed. "Most likely, my dad doesn't like anything soft."_

What an odd man_, Goldilocks thought. "That's strange. My mom loves soft things. Soft clothes, soft beds, soft skin... if something isn't soft than she doesn't like it."_

_ "My mama, too," Willis said. "I think your mama would love my mama's room, then."_

_ Without further prompting, Goldilocks let the boy lead her to the medium sized door, and this one slid open easily. The room had floral designs everywhere, making the girl wrinkle her nose, and everything was clean and polished from the mirror to the floor. The bed was a normal size, but the blankets looked thick and the pillows plush._

_ "Your parents don't sleep in the same room?" Goldilocks asked, touching the soft stitching of the blankets._

_ "We don't like to share," Willis said simply, as though it were normal. "And besides, my mama would hate to fall asleep on Papa's rock mattress, and Papa would hate to sleep on Mama's soft mattress."_

_ "I guess I could see their point," Goldilocks nodded. After all, what was the point of sharing a bed? "Can I see your room?"_

_ "Follow me."_

_ The next room was boyish and messy with shoes and clothes on the ground and the pillows that were supposed to be on the bed were on the floor. Goldilocks stepped into the room and looked around with interest._

_ "Are all boys' rooms messy?" she drawled, picking up a pillow and placing it on the bed._

_ "I don't know," Willis said back. "I haven't been in a boys' room for years because I can't visit my friends anymore."_

_ His voice had changed. The polite, distant voice she thought he owned had turned scathing and full of hatred. The tone scared her, so she didn't turn to face him, hoping that if she ignored it than it will go away. _I'm fine, _she thought_. He's just a sweet little boy.

_ "I can't do anything but sit in my room and wait for my mama and my papa to return because those _royals_ are too selfish to think of other people for a change," Willis continued angrily. "Do you have any idea how boring it is to do the same thing over and over? To have millions of things to explore around you but you can't because you're _trapped_? My mama and papa won't let me leave because they're scared that leaving something unattended will make us even more poor. Can you believe it? Even when we're far from civilization we still worry about money."_

_ "I'm sorry?" Goldilocks whispered, too amazed to say anything. "I understand. I get it. That's why I ran away – for adventure."_

_ "But you're a princess!" Willis roared, his voice so frightening that the poor girl whipped around out of fright. He was standing at his wardrobe, his hands clutching a gun that was pointed straight at her._

_ "Willis!" Goldilocks choked, backing away so quickly that her head bumped into the wall behind her. "What are you doing?"_

_ "What am _I _doing?" Willis' brown eyes didn't look sweet anymore, but scary. They were far too cold to belong to a ten year old boy. "I'm doing what's right! You ran away! You were supposed to stay and become a queen so that you can take care of your kingdom but you ran away because you are selfish!"_

_ "Willis – no!" Goldilocks sobbed, tears streaming down her round face. "Please don't kill me! I don't want to die!"_

_ "Do you have any idea what's happening around you?" the boy demanded, crying also. "Your parents are neglecting their own land! Villages are dying! Killing and stealing is the only way they can live! Me and my parents had to run away just so we could survive your parent's steep taxes! You were our last hope! We thought that once you were queen, things would change! But you left!"_

_ "I'm sorry!" Goldilocks sobbed, her tears blurring her vision and her knees shaking underneath her. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Don't kill me!"_

_ "We believed in you," Willis glared at her. "I checked on the village every day or so because I wanted to see if you finally stepped up, and guess what I found out instead?"_

_ He kept the gun steady in one hand, still trained on the older girl, and dug in his pockets with his other hand. There was a crumple of paper and he took out a flier with a face of a girl on it. Goldilocks blinked away her tears and gazed at a picture of herself._

_ "Your mother is going to pay a lot to the person who finds you," Willis said. "Enough to get me and my family out of here, _and more_. The funny thing is, the flier doesn't say if it wants you dead or alive."_

_ Goldilocks shivered, but it wasn't from the cold. "Are you going to kill me?"_

_ Willis dropped the paper and grasped his gun. "Don't take it personal, Princess, but you really shouldn't have ran away."_

_ Her own scream ripped through the air as she felt a pain in her chest, before she collapsed on the small bed beside her, the world going black._

XXX

"Emma! _Emma_!" Lola slammed her fist on the rusty old white door of Mary Margaret's house. She had been there for about ten minutes, so she waited a couple of more before taking off. She wasn't sure why, but she felt like she had to tell Emma the truth fast before something terrible happened.

She knew it was silly to believe in everything Henry was saying just because she didn't hear crickets chirp, or because the clock hadn't worked, or even because of her own bad memory, but even though the proof was small, it was still enough to make her doubt herself. Henry was just so _sure _about it, and it made sense if you just believed in magic. There had to be a reason why no one had left Storybrooke until Emma came, or the reason why hardly anyone _came into _Storybrooke until Emma came.

The uneasy feeling that took shelter in her stomach stirred again, and Lola found herself running down the street, past the clock tower. Everyone was walking normally, neutrally, like they were all in a trance, like they had no other purpose but to just live. Lola felt suddenly trapped, like she had no other choice but to live each day over and over and over again the exact same way unless a certain person decided to change things...

Lola hadn't noticed that she stopped until someone pushed her roughly aside.

"_Move_!" Mayor Mills snarled, running up the steps of the hospital.

"Hey!" Lola protested, steadying herself and following the black haired woman. "Have you seen Emma?"

Mayor Mills paused and turned to glare at the young girl with deep hatred. The look on her face made Lola take a step back. "_No_. I haven't. She said she was leaving Storybrooke."

Before Lola could ask anymore questions, the mayor rushed into the hospital. The uneasy feeling increased, and Lola followed her.

Everyone was rushing everywhere when the sixteen year old walked in, and she got shoved around a million times before she caught sight of the mayor again. When she got to the room Regina stalked into, her heart stopped.

Five people were leaning over a small boy. A doctor, three nurses, Mayor Regina, and Sheriff Swan. But it wasn't them that Lola was staring at.

"_Henry_!" Lola wailed, rushing forward to the pale boy on the bed. He was as white as his sheets and made no movement to indicate that he could hear her. The doctor was holding up his eyelids and flashing a light in his eye. "No, no! What happened to him?"

"Girl, you shouldn't be here!" one of the nurses grasped Lola's shoulders and started to push her out, but Lola resisted.

"What happened?" she demanded to the doctor, trying to fight against the nurse, who was older and stronger. "Do you know what happened?"

"_He ate this_!" Emma cried, shoving a bag that contained a pastry under the doctor's nose. "It was poisoned! _Do_ something!"

"He isn't showing signs of being poisoned," the doctor told her helplessly. "It has to be something else. Think of any little detail! What else could have made him like this?"

Regina stared wide-eyed at the pastry. "The apple... it was meant for you!"

Emma paused in her bag-waving to stare at Regina. "You! You poisoned him!"

"He isn't showing signs of being poisoned!" the doctor repeated loudly.

The nurse almost got Lola fully out of the door, but what Regina said made a light bulb shine above her head, and a new-found strength exploded in her limbs. She shoved the nurse aside and raced up to the two heartbroken mothers.

"Emma! Operation Cobra!" she cried. "Henry was right about everything! All the story book characters are real!"

Emma looked ready to break down at that moment as she looked down at the younger blonde. "Lola, this is _real life_, you can't base everything off of fairy tales."

"But it's _true_," Lola insisted.

"What? What's real? That you're Goldilocks?" Emma looked down at her with tearful blue eyes. "Do you understand how crazy that sounds?"

Lola felt her own tears build up in her eyes. "But it's the truth! You really are the savior, just like Henry said. Look!"

Lola flipped through the pages again to find the picture of her in it. When she showed it to Emma, she covered her face in her hands and backed up a few steps. She looked seconds away from tearing her hair out in frustration.

"I understand that it all sounds insane," Lola pleaded. "But how else could Henry collapse after eating Regina's – the _Evil Queen's_ – apple pastry, but show no signs of being poisoned. It's because it's magic, Emma! You have to believe!"

"Look, kid," Emma said, grasping both of her shoulders and looking her firmly in the eyes so that blue met gray. "I understand that you're lonely, and that you're looking for a bit of hope, but you can't just pretend that you came from a fairy tale to make it all better. You have to face you problems and change things yourself. I'm not your savior, the only one I'm responsible for is Henry, and right now _he needs me_."

A knot formed in Lola's throat at these words, so all she could do was nod. Emma stared at her for a bit longer, her eyes soft and sympathetic, before she let go of her shoulders and started to dig through her kid's backpack. The nurse started to push her out again, and this time she didn't fight her.

"Wait," Lola choked when the nurse was about to close the door on her. "Can you – can you give this to Henry? It's his favorite book."

The nurse glanced down at the hardcover book of fairy tales and nodded. When the door closed, cutting off all the rushing and chatter, Lola finally let a tear slide down her cheeks.

It was dark outside. The sunny day turning murky and sad. She hugged herself as she walked down the road, unable to stop Emma's words from running over and over in her head. What she had said echoed what Lola herself had told Henry, but when it was said to her by someone she looked up to... she couldn't believe that she had told Henry that.

It was no secret to her that she was Henry's only friend. He had the grown ups, but Lola was the closest to his age, and he took her opinions to heart. She wondered if it hurt as badly as she was hurt when she practically called him crazy.

She wiped another tear that ran down her cheek, trying to think of something else – anything else – that would make her happy, but she kept coming back to point one. She had no happy memories. If there was a curse, Regina did a good job at it, because there wasn't any point in Lola's life that she didn't feel alone. She supposed that she was supposed to feel like that, considering her parents had abandoned her.

She wondered if Goldilocks was an orphan, too. She really should have read the story, just so she could feel connected or understood by _someone_.

So lost in her own thoughts, she almost didn't notice when David Nolan walked past her.

"David?" she paused in her own depressed thoughts to notice that the handsome man was crying, too. "Are you okay?"

David quickly wiped away his tears before turning to face her fully. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine..." he trailed off when he got a good look at her puffy face that was streaked with tears. "Lola! Are _you _okay?"

"I'm fine," Lola lied, not really knowing why she did. What was wrong with her? First she pushed Henry away when he could have been a good friend, and now she was pushing someone who was going to comfort her away. It was like she wanted herself to be unhappy.

_It's the curse_, a voice that sounded a lot like Henry whispered in her head.

For the first time Lola pictured the mayor as an evil queen. Now that she took into consideration that the stories Henry sprouted were real, she could actually picture Regina cackled to herself as she watched everyone in the town live on miserably. Anger gripped Lola's heart at the image. There was no way she was going to let some evil queen take over her life and her decisions, and there was no way that she was going to wait around for Emma to save her from her own life.

"No, I'm not," Lola said truthfully to David, taking a step towards him. "I'm really, really not."

David closed the distance between them and she allowed him to give her a hug, something she couldn't remember ever getting before.

"Everything's wrong," Lola sobbed. "Why am I so unhappy all the time? It's like every time something is there to make me feel some joy – something else takes it away."

"I know how you feel," David admitted. "Except that something taking away my happiness is me. I keep making mistake after mistake and it's all my fault."

Lola sniffled. "Just tell Mary Margaret how you feel and keep fighting for her. If it's meant to be, you'll always find each other."

David's chest shook as he chuckled. "Yeah, that's what I thought, too. But I can't keep staying in a place where I'm unhappy. I'm moving to Boston tonight."

Lola jerked out of his arms. "What? You can't!"

David looked surprised, his arms falling to his sides. "I have nothing left for me here. Everyone hates me and Mary Margaret doesn't want me here."

"But you can't leave!" Lola insisted. "Henry was poisoned! He's in the hospital and he could die! You need to help Emma save him!"

David looked shell-shocked. "What?" he whispered in disbelief.

"You heard me," Lola growled. "Are you really going to leave when Henry needs you the most?"

David searched her tear stained face, as though he would find the answers there. "No, I won't."

XXX

_She felt arms wrapped around her legs, and shoulders digging into her hips, but her torso was hanging over someone's back. The person carrying her like a sac of flour walked briskly but silently, just how she always thought a hunter would walk, so they wouldn't startle their pray. She heard birds chirping and people whispering, but everything merged together to a dull hum that made her head pound._

_ At first she remembered nothing, but then all the memories caught up to her at once, leaving her dizzy and lightheaded. The boy, the rooms, the gun. She could feel a bruise over her heart, where she got shot, but she knew that she wasn't dead. Death shouldn't be this uncomfortable._

_ She opened her eyes a bit too quickly, and groaned when bright light assaulted her vision. Her head pounded as though she had been banging it against the floor for too long._

_ "I hope she didn't cause you any trouble," a familiar voice simpered._

_ "Not at all, Your Majesty," another familiar voice said quietly._

_ "You can put her in there," Queen Rapunzel said. "Dear, I think you can give the Bear family their reward?"_

_ "Of course, Rapunzel," King Phillip said._

_ Goldilocks was put down gently on a wooden floor, the movement causing her to wake up fully. She blinked up at the man who had been carrying her. He looked familiar – thick black hair, kind brown eyes, olive-tone skin. It only took a moment for her to realize that it must be Willis' dad._

_ She lifted herself onto her elbows and took in her surroundings. She was in the back of what looked like a carriage, but the back door had bars on the window, as though she were a prisoner. Outside she could see her mom, Rapunzel, her dad, Phillip, Willis, Willis' parents, and a handful of guards. Phillip was handing Willis' mom a large bag of jewels, gold, and silver._

_ Rapunzel and Willis' dad were standing above her._

_ "Sweetie," Rapunzel smiled down at her, cupping her cheek in her abnormally pale hands. "You gave me and your dad quite a scare."_

_ Goldilocks ripped her face away from her. "No. No – Willis! Please don't let her take me! I thought we were friends!"_

_ Willis' eyes met her's, and for a moment she dared to feel hope, but it was ripped cruelly away from her when he looked away, as though he never even heard her._

_ "Willis! Willis, _please_!"_

_ Her cries were ignored. Rapunzel stepped back and allowed the guards to close the doors. Goldilocks scrambled to her feet and grasped the bars of the windows, trying to yank them off. Her mom gazed up at her with wide gray eyes._

_ "Oh, sweetie," she whispered so only she could hear. "Why did it have to come to this?"_

_ "Why do you keep me locked away?" Goldilocks sobbed._

_ "Because if I don't you'll run away," Rapunzel's face crumpled. "I can't let you get away."_

_ "But you know what this feels like," her daughter pleaded. "Please, just let me be free."_

_ Rapunzel searched her face, her own eyes watering considerably, before glancing away as though she couldn't bear to see her daughter._

_ "I'm sorry," she whispered hoarsely. "But I can't."_

_ And with that, Goldilocks' last chance at an adventure free from duty was stripped from her, leaving her bare and vulnerable._

_XXX_

"We would like to visit Henry Mills," David told the lady at the front desk.

"Right down the hall to the right," the lady replied, waving her hand vaguely behind her.

"Thank you," David said.

With the directions the lady gave them, they would have been lost for sure, but Lola already knew the way. When they made it to the room, she felt her heart break all over again.

Henry looked worse since the last time she'd seen him. His skin matched the blankets that were tucked around him, making his dark hair contrast heavily with the rest of him. His eyes had dark circles under them, as though he hadn't slept enough, and Lola wondered if that was a symptom from being poisoned, or if he had already had those there, but no one noticed. She didn't know which was worse.

"Oh, God," David said, sitting in the chair next to Henry. "What happened to him?"

"He ate something that was probably poisoned," Lola replied, not telling him the whole truth just in case he called her crazy like Emma had. "But the doctors are saying he isn't showing signs of being poisoned. No one knows how to help."

"Where are Emma and Regina?" David asked.

"I don't know," Lola said. "But _someone _should be here for him."

Lola took a seat at the foot of his bed and held his hand. It was so cold and stiff, like he was already gone. The thought made her throat close up, so she glanced around the room and thought of anything to say.

"You know he thinks you're his grandfather?" Lola blurted out randomly.

To say that David was surprised was an understatement. "What?" he smiled, as though it were a joke.

"Yeah," Lola said, glancing nervously at him. She wondered if she would trigger some old memories. "Apparently Emma is you and Mary Margaret's daughter."

"I'm not old enough to be a granddad," David pointed out.

"Well, you're Prince Charming and Mary Margaret is Snow White, and we're all under a curse that makes us live unhappy forever," she said as casually as she could. "I'm Goldilocks, in case you were wondering."

"Do you have a grandkid, too?"

"No, not that I know of," Lola smiled. "But I'm a princess, which is ten times more awesome."

David laughed.

Lola's eyes caught something underneath Henry's pillow. The big square of a brown book. The nurse must have put it there. She grabbed it carefully, not wanting to knock Henry's head around, and opened it to a random page. She could see a man with a cape kneeling to a woman in white. Again, it was a painting, but Lola could see the resemblance between David and Prince Charming, and again with Mary Margaret and Snow White.

"This is his favorite book," Lola said in wonderment. "I've seen it millions of times but I've never even read a word of it."

Lola glanced up at David. "This part is about you, you know," she said, half joking. "I think you should read about your other life."

Before he could protest, she put the book on his lap, and watched his eyes widen as he, too, noticed the resemblance.

"_And yes, she was beyond hope, beyond saving. This was her end,_" David read aloud. "_When Prince Charming saw his beloved Snow White in her glass coffin, he knew all that was left was to say goodbye. He had to give her one last kiss, and when he did, true love proved more powerful than any curse. A pulse of pure love shuddered out and engulfed the land, waking up Snow White and bringing light to the darkness."_

He stopped.

"What is it?" Lola didn't even realize that she had been whispering. He looked like he was remembering something, could it be...?

"Nothing," David said, giving his head a little shake. "I just had a feeling that I've heard this before... maybe I've read the book when I was a kid."

"Do you remember being a kid?"

"No..." David looked confused. "I don't... but I don't remember anything before I was comatose."

Lola felt deflated. She had forgotten about that.

"Uh... this is a good... a good book," David said, closing it. "I can see why Henry likes it."

Lola nodded mutely, and was saved from making a reply when Mary Margaret walked in. Everyone paused when they noticed each other, and a heavy silence fell when the two grown ups met each other's gaze.

"I came to, uh, see Henry," Mary Margaret said, clearing her throat a little.

Lola patted the empty space next to her. "We did, too."

Mary Margaret hesitated, but sat down. She held Henry's limp hand for a moment, but the awkward silence was thick, and Lola needed to escape.

"I need to use the bathroom!" she said, a little too loudly. "I'll be back."

She scampered away from them, on search for the bathroom.

When she left the silence wasn't awkward, but uncomfortable. Mary Margaret pursed her lips and furrowed her brow, looking a little angry.

"I thought you were leaving," she said tightly, not looking at him.

"I was," David said. "But I heard about Henry and thought I should do something to help."

"And what is that?"

"I-I don't know," David admitted. "But I couldn't leave."

Mary Margaret nodded slowly, still not looking at him. "David, I stand by what I said earlier. You and me... it can't happen."

"I know," he swallowed the hurt he felt, but knew that he deserved it. "I just wish there was something I could do that would change that."

"There isn't," she said coolly.

David nodded. "Then I just want you to know... I love you, Mary Margaret."

She finally looked at him, her eyes showing the hurt she felt when he didn't believe her, and the hurt she was feeling at what she was about to say. "And I love you, too. But this can't happen, David. It can't."

She closed her eyes and turned away from him, refusing to let him see her tears. She didn't have to hide them for long, because he got up and left, maybe for the very last time.

Three minutes later, Lola came back.

"Where did David go?" she asked, taking his seat.

"He left," Mary Margaret closed her eyes in pain.

"Why?" Lola demanded. "I thought you two were working it out. Did he tell you that he loved you?"

"Oh, Lola, it's not that simple," the teacher said sadly.

"Why not?" Lola demanded. "Because he didn't believe you when you were accused of murdering his wife? Most of the town didn't believe you, but you forgave them!"

"It's different when it's someone you love," Mary Margaret said softly. "You wouldn't understand."

Lola snuffled the hurt and continued angrily. "You're right! It is different. Isn't love about forgiveness? Don't you see, Mary Margaret? You're letting your only chance at happiness walk away! You can't let that happen or Regina will win!"

The teacher paused, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. "Regina? What does the mayor have to do with any of this?"

"She's the Evil Queen!"

Mary Margaret stared at the sixteen year old with wide eyes. "Lola, those fairy tales aren't real."

"Yes, they are," Lola moaned. "Henry has been right all along, but no one listened to him! You really are Snow White, that man you just sent away _is _your Prince Charming, and Emma really is your daughter! Think about it – Henry passes out right after eating an apple pastry _Regina _made for Emma – the only person who can break the curse she cast – yet Henry is showing no signs of poison. It's because the technology doesn't pick up the magic."

The teacher suddenly looked very tired. "Lola, all of that isn't real," she sighed. "This is real life. There isn't always true love or happily ever afters." She looked down at Henry and grabbed his hand again. "I remember when I gave Henry that book. I gave it to him because I knew... I know life doesn't always have a happy ending..." she looked up at the younger girl, her eyes filled with tears. "But I thought-"

Beeping filled their ears, and both of them jerked from their seats, staring at the heart monitor, which was showing a straight line.

"What is that?" Lola demanded, her eyes wide. "_What is that_?"

"Doctor Whale!?" Mary Margaret called, staring at the monitor in horror. The doctor came barging in with a group of nurses, all of them muttering to each other but none of them making sense. "Doctor Whale – what is that?"

They ignored the two girls, pushing them aside and crowding around Henry, touching his wrists and neck but getting no reaction. Lola raised a shaky hand to her mouth, tears streaming down her face.

"No, no, no," Lola wept. "This wasn't supposed to happen. He's supposed to live."

"Get them out of here!" Doctor Whale ordered, and they both were ushered out of the room, both of them too much in shock to actually fight.

_She was right_, Lola thought. _There are no happy endings_.

Lola didn't remember much of anything else. She and Mary Margaret made their separate ways without a word to each other. Lola wasn't sure where she was going, but she knew she had to get as far away from Henry as she could, because if she took one look at that boy, she would break down.

Her feet found their destination. She was alone in her foster room with nothing but her barely used stuff to keep her company. She collapsed on her small, rickety bed and stared up at her flaky ceiling.

What had she been thinking? She wasn't a princess. She was an orphan that no one wanted. A girl people spoke to but never actually got close to. It wasn't Regina's fault that she was unloved and unhappy – it was her own. _She _had pushed Henry away when he offered friendship, _she _had pushed all her happiness away. She could have made something of herself, but instead she was a self-pitying orphan was blamed make believe Evil Queens for her own failures.

"I'm no Princess," she whispered to herself brokenly. "I'm just an orph..."

She felt felt herself be pushed a little but a gust of wind, and the blonde strands of her hair fell in her face, but she barely noticed.

"I _am _a princess," Lola breathed, her eyes wide. "And none of this is my fault."

She heard people screaming outside her house, everyone reuniting with their loved ones and cursing the Evil Queen for putting them all there in the first place. Lola rushed to her – or was it Goldilocks'? - window and gazed out in wonder at all the people who had remembered.

She had been right. Henry had been right. Somehow, Emma had saved them all from an eternity of misery, and now everyone was getting back together, ready to begin their happily ever after.

Goldilocks shook her head in wonderment. Two lifetimes were bombarding in her head, trying to take over. She didn't even know her own identity – was she Lola, the sweet little sad orphan girl, or was she Queen Goldilocks, the strong ruler of the seventh kingdom? She loved both her lives, even though both brought misery and sadness, but how could she chose which to be? She knew that she should choose Goldilocks, because Lola was someone made up by Regina, but not all of the orphan girls' memories were sad.

She was spared from making her decision at the moment when something came floating from above the trees. A dark purple mist leaked into the air and slithered over buildings speedily, looking dangerous.

"What is that?" she asked herself, moments before it seeped through her window and engulfed her and her room in it's dark depths.

XXX

**A/N: Alright, I know that the clock doesn't work until magic comes back but I changed it. Also, since Lola/Goldilocks is there, some things are bound to change. Like how Emma came into possession with Henry's book, and how David read from the book and not Mary Margaret, but other things stay the same – like magic returning and Henry living.**

** I won't be going through episodes piece by piece because I want to get to season three quickly, so there will be time skips. Also, I know that there are way too many flashbacks in this chapter, but I had to show you the difference between my Goldilocks, and the one the Grimm brothers made. I promise Lola will have some action, too, but I needed to introduce her first – you know, ease her into the story like she's always been there.**

** Rapunzel isn't a major character, so don't worry. I just needed Goldilocks to have a mom, and Rapunzel is sort of awesome, so I chose her. Phillip is my creation and he really has no big parts in my story.**

** Lola isn't all about Henry and she isn't abnormally brave, so don't expect her to risk her life for him, please? She's young and has a life of her own that she wants to keep. But she is a princess who puts many before herself, so be prepared for a lot of selfless acts.**

** Hope you like my story and are waiting eagerly for the next update.**

** Everything recognizable belongs to whoever made Once Upon a Time.**


	2. Finding Each Other

Chapter Two – Finding Each Other

XXX

The strange purple mist floated in the air around Lola/Goldilocks, crawling down the windows and crawling under her bed slowly, but as she watched the substance started to thin out and disappear.

The door to her room flew open, and her foster mom stared at her with wide eyes; but now that Lola got her memories back, she realized that it wasn't her distant foster mom at all, but her head maid.

"Your Majesty!" the maid cried, her cheeks flustered and her blue eyes wide with disbelief. "Why, I am so sorry! I didn't know it was you. I – I couldn't remember a thing."

"It's alright," Lola said, her head suddenly starting to pound. "I didn't remember anything, either."

"What do you think happened?" the maid whispered hoarsely. "That purple smoke – what was that?"

Lola felt her stomach drop a bit. She was a queen again, and that thought wasn't happy at all. She remembered the time in the other realm where everyone came to her for advice, and she remembered the guilt and shame she felt when someone was hurt in her kingdom. She remembered the responsibilities that were put on her, she remembered the hate some felt for her, but she also remembered that it was her duty to put her own needs aside for others, so she straightened up and put on her best smile.

"Why don't we find out?" Lola – she really thought she should call herself Goldilocks – held out her arm, and the maid grasped it like a life line. It was strange how someone who just yesterday seemed to not care that Lola existed now looked at her like she was a goddess. "Let's go find Snow White and Prince Charming."

"Why them?"

"Because it was their kingdom that was sent to this place, we are just the unlucky ones who got dragged along," Lola told her.

It wasn't hard to find the royals. A crowd was forming at the town square, and in the very middle of it was a kind woman with the whitest skin Lola had ever seen, and a handsome man with his arms wrapped protectively and lovingly around her.

Even though Lola didn't want to, she saw the differences in the two now. Mary Margaret no longer looked like the sad, alone, yet kind school teacher who wanted nothing more than to do nice things for others, regardless of what it would cost her. She now looked like a Queen who had faced many battles but still managed to see the world with a child-like black and white view. David Nolan didn't look like a confused, lonely man anymore, either, but a serious, brave one who fought with a sword and not cunning.

"Snow!" Lola fought her way through the crowd, but didn't have to because it parted for her immediately. Lola was shocked stiff at the respect, but Goldilocks was used to it and she took it in stride. The two lifetimes that filled her head were already fighting against each other, and the poor girl didn't know which she wanted to win.

"Goldilocks," Snow White smiled kindly at her. "I am so sorry about the way I treated you."

Lola remembered all of the condescending remarks and the patronizing looks she got when she was in the town, and Goldilocks' blood boiled, but outside, she smiled.

"It's alright," Lola said, letting go of her maid's arm and straightening up. She was barely sixteen, and her small height showed it. "I'm sorry for treating you like a teacher."

Snow laughed, her eyes a bit teary.

"I told you!" a voice called.

"Henry!" Lola embraced the kid in the biggest hug she ever gave him, half out of relief to see him alive and half out of gratitude. He threw his arms around her too, and she looked down at him. "You did tell us. You are one smart kid."

"You can thank me with ice cream at Granny's later," Henry half-smiled, his cheeks flushed and his eyes shining.

Lola laughed and let him go, turning to see who was around her. She saw Granny and Ruby – Red Riding Hood – she saw seven mechanics – the seven dwarfs – Prince Charming, Snow White, Henry, and Emma, the savior.

"You did it," Lola beamed at their hero, who looked ready to run away if anyone took one step towards her. "You saved us all. Thank you."

"Your welcome," Emma said. "So you're really Goldilocks? Why would you sleep in someone else's bed?"

Lola felt herself blush. "I was fourteen and naive, but that's not exactly how the story goes."

Lola's head maid stepped forward, her hands wringing at the hem of her pearl white shirt. "Pardon me, your majesties, but if the curse is broken, then why are we still here?"

"That's what we'd all like to know," Grumpy, one of the dwarfs, said.

"And that's an excellent question," David agreed.

"What was that smoke?" one of the dwarfs demanded.

"Who did this?" another asked.

"What was that smoke?"

"And why?"

"_And _what was that smoke?"

"Magic," a tall, strict looking lady walked up with little blue shoes. She was the Blue Fairy, but in the realm she was changed into a nun. She looked at each of them in turn, and Lola almost cringed back when her eyes went to her. The Blue Fairy was powerful and wise, but she was also quick to judge and extremely strict, and Lola didn't like her in the slightest. Goldilocks, however, always respected her, so she gave her a stiff nod in greeting. "It's here. I can feel it."

Amazingly, the Blue Fairy smiled happily, and Snow smiled softly and took both of her hands in her own.

"Magic?" Henry said in wonder, as though he couldn't quite believe it although he had been saying it all along. "In _Storybrooke_?" The Blue Fairy nodded with a warm smile. "You're the blue fairy – do something magical." he urged.

The Blue Fairy's smile became fixed. "It's not quite that simple, Henry. No wand, no fairy dust... things are complicated right now."

"So we're stuck here?" Lola demanded. "There has to be a way back. Whoever did the curse had to have had a backup, meaning they made sure there was a way back before casting."

"She's right," Grumpy said, crossing his thick, muscular arms. "Let's go to the person responsible: the Queen."

"Yeah, the Queen!" the dwarfs eagerly yelled.

"I have a few choice words for her also," Lola agreed. "Out of everything she made me an _orphan_? If she thinks she's going to get away with it then she's got another thing coming."

"You're not really an orphan?" Henry asked, his head tilting to the side. "Who are your parents?"

"My mother died when I was fourteen," Lola explained. "But as far as I know my dad is... not here." Lola looked around, suddenly realizing who was missing in the little group huddle. "My dad – I haven't seen him at all!"

"There are a few others missing, as well," Red said. "My friends from the village stayed behind."

"But what happened to the Enchanted Forest?" Granny demanded, her voice hard. "Is it still there?"

Fear gripped Lola's stomach. Her father was the only thing she had – no friends, no boyfriends, not even a pet. If he died, or worse, then she would truly be alone, and the title of an orphan would be permanently put over her head.

"The other lands are unharmed, though, right?" Lola said, feeling queasy. "My kingdom... it has to be safe if no one was brought here."

Snow's eyes turned sympathetic, like they always did when Lola was nothing more than an orphan. "I don't know what happened to the Enchanted Forest, but we have to have hope that our friends have survived, and that they are safe."

"I don't want hope," Lola replied coolly. "I need facts. Let's find the Evil Queen!"

"Yeah!" the dwarfs roared.

"Wait!" Emma jumped in front of the group that had been quickly forming into a mob. "It wasn't Regina who brought back magic. It was Mr. Gold."

"Rumpelstiltskin," Snow's eyes flashed with recognition. "But how would he know how to bring it back? In order to do that he must have known for-"

"For years, yeah," Emma nodded. "He's known the whole time, he was just pretending not to. He brought me to get _something_, a – a golden egg. He said it would save Henry, but he took it and left."

"He must have had powerful magic in there," Lola murmured. "He's been deceiving us just as much as the Evil Queen."

"What are we going to do?" Henry asked.

"Confront Gold before Regina," Emma answered. "I want answers, and he's the only one who can give it to me."

The mob started to walk down the road together, but Lola had other plans. Rumpelstiltskin might have had the answers to why magic was there, but the Evil Queen had the answers to what happened to the Enchanted Forest. Without anyone noticing, not even her maid, she ran down the opposite street towards the mayor's mansion.

XXX

_Goldilocks was curled up on the love seat before her large window that looked over the entire kingdom. She had been stripped of her dirty blue dress and changed into a soft pink nightgown that fell below her knees; soft fluffy socks covered her toes and her hair had been combed and pinned up into a high pony tail._

_She was back in her prison room, which looked nothing like a cell, but kept her caged up nonetheless. The ceiling was high, the furniture huge, but the princess felt no isolated._

_There was a knock on the door, which the fourteen year old girl ignored, but the people on the other side came in anyway._

"_Darling, you should be in bed resting," Queen Rapunzel instantly protested._

_Goldilocks turned to face her parents, who were both dressed for bed. Rapunzel was known for her long golden hair, and to keep it from brushing against the ground she curled and braided it many times over, but it still reached just below her ankles. Goldilocks wondered if all that hair made her mother's head hurt, but like always the queen looked stoic and regal. Her father was painfully ordinary with mousy brown hair and pale blue eyes, but when he stood next to his beloved wife, he looked handsome. The princess figured it was because they were both in love, and that made everything beautiful._

"_I'm not tired," Goldilocks said, before turning back to the window. Above the many trees she could see blue jays and crows flying around each other, going back home to their nests._

"_You didn't eat your soup," Rapunzel scolded, picking up the tray next to her daughter's bedside table. The bowl was full and the crackers around it were only nibbled on._

"_I'm not hungry," Goldilocks shrugged._

"_Well, if you get hungry in the middle of the night you'll know why," the Queen said disapprovingly, before her gaze softened. "Goldilocks, I am only doing what I think is best for you... and the kingdom. They need to know that their next leader is willing to help them. When you run away that doesn't give them much hope."_

"_I don't want to be responsible for hundreds of people's lives," Goldilocks snapped. "I want my freedom. All these lands and I have only seen the garden around our castle."_

"_It's dangerous out there," Rapunzel said in front of her daughter and caressed her cheek, but Goldilocks looked away, and she let her hand drop to her lap. "Darling, I know that you want to go out and have an adventure. I understand more than anyone, Sweetie, but you must listen when I say this... what's out there – the stories you hear – they are not as grand as they may seem. I almost died a thousand times when I left my tower-"_

"_You were dying _in _your tower," Goldilocks snapped, getting to her feet angrily. "It was slow, but you were dying every single day – like I am now. I don't want to waste my life away staring outside a window, hoping things will get better. I'm not meant to be a princess, Mom."_

"_Then what are you meant to be?" the Queen asked softly. "Darling, one step out of this castle and you're done for. It's dangerous-"_

"_No!" Goldilocks turned away and marched a couple of steps away from her parents, who watched her back sadly. "It was dangerous for _you_. You weren't cut out to be anything else than a face under a crown, but I know I have a different future. I'm strong, Mom, I can survive. Please, just let me go."_

_Rapunzel got to her feet and put both of her hands on her daughter's shoulders, before hugging her from behind. Her curled golden hair brushed the side of the princess's cheeks, bringing her warmth._

"_I can't."_

_And with those words, so softly spoken, the warmth disappeared. Goldilocks angrily pushed from her mother and stood in front of her window, glaring down at the flying birds. "Then I have nothing else to say to you."_

_Rapunzel made to embrace her daughter, but King Phillip held out his hand to stop her, and shook his head firmly. The Queen sighed sadly, before leaving the room. Phillip stayed behind, watching his daughter try to hold her tears in before saying anything._

"_You must not be too hard on your mother," King Phillip told his little girl. "She just wants whats best for you."_

"_Don't pretend you don't agree with her," Goldilocks snapped coldly, rounding on him and pointing an accusing finger. "Otherwise you would have let me go, regardless of what she thinks."_

"_Contrary to what you think, me and your mother are a team," Phillip said. "We compromise, we agree, we do not go behind each other's backs and deceive. Goldilocks, what is so wrong with being a princess? Why are you not happy? We give you everything you could ever need."_

Except love_, Goldilocks sobbed in her mind._

"_I just want to be free," she said instead. "Please, please, Dad. Let me go. I don't want to be here. I _hate _it here."_

_Phillip straightened up, his eyes turning hard as he glared at his daughter. "I cannot help you, Goldilocks. You must except your fate. There are people outside these walls who are depending on you, who hope for you to be the best princess that you can be. Stop being selfish."_

_That was the final straw. Something broke inside of the young princess and she felt a sob escape her throat. She shoved the rest down and somehow managed to stop herself from breaking down all together._

"_Okay, Father," Goldilocks choked, her voice barely audible._

_She waited for the door to close before moving. Almost mechanically, she dipped a nibbled cracker into her cold soup and took a small bite. She chewed more than necessary, but when she tried to swallow it got stuck in her throat. She blinked, letting a tear fall, and before she knew it a load of others followed, creating tracks down her pale cheeks and dripped into her soup. For the entire night, she sat on the love seat in front of the window, trying to eat but only managing to cry._

XXX

"Regina!" Lola banged her hand on the door, fighting the urge to punch a hole through one of her polished windows. "Open up or I'll bring it down!"

There was a silence, and when the sixteen year old raised her hand to bang on the door again, only harder, it flew open, and there stood the Evil Queen in all of her glory. It was amazing how familiar yet unfamiliar she looked to Lola now. As the lonely orphan, the sight of the mayor intimidated her and made her avoid her, but Goldilocks hated the Evil Queen, and that side of her fought not to slap the smirk right off of her cold, distant face.

"What?" Regina snapped, stepping out of her house and stalking forward. She was a head taller than the younger girl, but Lola stood her ground. "Come for revenge? _Puh-lease, _you won't be able to get it. You're not a queen anymore, Lola Lorie."

Lola clenched her teeth and fists. "No, I'm not. You took that from me. But I'm not here for revenge, Regina, I'm here for answers – that you're going to give."

"Oh really?" the mayor crossed her arms and raised one dark eyebrow.

"Really," Lola all but snarled. "What happened to everyone you left behind in the Enchanted Forest? Why didn't they come with us?"

"I only brought the people I wanted to come," Regina said smoothly. "Anyone else was left behind."

"So they're safe?" Lola demanded.

"I don't know," Regina smirked. "I would think not – there shouldn't be anything left back there. They were probably disintegrated or killed by wild beasts."

Lola stared at the woman in front of her in horror. "Do you not even care that you've murdered _thousands _of people? What's _wrong _with you?"

"If you haven't noticed," Regina hissed, her brown eyes flashing dangerously with unhidden malice. "I'm the _Evil Queen_, Goldilocks. I always get what I want and anyone who gets hurt along the way is irrelevant."

"Even if it's your own son?" Lola asked. "Do you know how heartbroken Henry will be when he figures out you've killed a whole realm? He already thinks you don't love him, but now you tore apart the world he's believed in all this time."

This silenced the Evil Queen, who did nothing but glare at the younger queen with pure hatred. They were both saved from doing anything else when an entire mob of raging people crashed through her front garden, screaming for revenge.

"I guess you won't have time to find out what Henry thinks of you," Lola smirked up at the mayor. "We both know why they came here. They've come to kill you."

Regina's face twisted with rage. With a swipe, she pushed the blonde girl aside and glared down at the people in front of her with nothing but cold resentment.

"Can I help any of you?" she demanded angrily. "What? You all think you can kill me?" She gave one sharp laugh as though that were the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard.

"We can, eventually," Doctor Whale stepped forward from the crowd. "But first you need to suffer."

Regina rolled her eyes and sneered. She walked forward and pushed the doctor roughly so that he stumbled back into the crowd. "Listening to you has been enough suffering already," she shot back. "That's right," she said to the crowd as a whole. "You wanted to see your _Queen_? Well, my dears, here... she..." she raised her arms, building up the magic before swiping it down to the crowd who screamed and ducked, Lola included. "Is!"

There was a silence as everyone blinked and straightened up, looking around to see if any were hurt or on fire. Lola, unharmed, laughed loudly and smiled. "She has no magic!" she told the crowd.

"She's powerless!" another cried. "Get her – go!"

The crowd surged forward, but Doctor Whale got to her first, and he pinned her to a tall white pillar, his hand at her throat. For a moment Lola saw a flash of fear in her eyes, but the Evil Queen quickly smoothed the look over and smiled up at the angry man before her.

"Now," Doctor Whale grinned viciously. "Where were we?"

"Let her go!"

A tall blonde woman pushed through the crowd, and Lola saw that it was Emma Swan, her voice loud with authority as she repeated, "Let her go!" She got to the front quickly and pushed Doctor Whale aside. "_Let her go_."

"And why should I listen to you?" the doctor hissed.

"Because I am still your sheriff," Emma snapped.

"Because she saved you," David added, pushing to the front. "All of you!"

"Yeah, and because no matter _what _Regina did, it does not justify _this_!" Snow White added, hugging a pale Henry close to her.

Emma turned to Doctor Whale. "We are not murderers here," she told him softly.

The doctor leaned forward, his eyes soft, and for a moment Lola thought he was going to apologize, but then he said, almost kindly, "Well, we're not from this world."

"Yeah, well, you're in it now," Emma insisted.

David looked antsy with the raging doctor so close to his daughter, and he leaped forward and got between them. "Okay, Whale, we're done-"

"Back off," Whale sneered, shrugging off the Prince's arm. "You're not my prince."

David paused. "Who are you really?" he asked.

Whale smiled. "That's _my _business," he smirked.

David's eyes flashed with annoyance but he forced a smile on his face. "Yeah, well, _my _business is making sure this town doesn't go to hell, so whether or not I'm your _prince_ isn't the issue. We have _a lot_ to figure out," he turned to the crowd. "And this _isn't_ the way to do it."

"And!" Snow jumped forward beside her husband. "And Regina's death won't provide any answers! She needs to be locked up. For her own safety and, more importantly, for ours."

"I don't think that's your decision to make," Doctor Whale hissed, and the crowd agreed.

Red Riding Hood defended her long-time friend. "But as the Queen-"

"Well, she's not the only queen here," Whale remarked condescendingly. "If I remember correctly, Queen Goldilocks here was all for killing the Evil Queen."

Heads turned to Lola, who felt the heavy pressure of making big decisions way her down. But, like always, she pushed it aside and stepped forward, her head held high and her shoulders back.

"She needs to be punished for her crimes," Lola stated, making the crowd roar with agreement.

Snow White rushed forward and grasped the younger girl by the forearms. Her grip was strong and would leave bruises later. "Goldilocks, how will this help us? We need answers-"

"I've got the answers," Lola snapped back, cutting her off. Tears were building in her eyes and she felt them threaten to spill over. "There is no Enchanted Forest, that's why we didn't go back. She _killed everyone there_."

At the young queen's words, a thick silence filled the air, all eyes turning to the Evil Queen in disbelief. Even Snow, who was quick to defend her step mother, looked disgusted.

"But that's not possible," Henry said, his voice loud in the silence. "The curse only brought you guys here. Everyone else should be safe, right?"

Regina, for the first time in the whole event, looked down at the boy she loved more than anything else in all the worlds. She lived to make people fear her, but the fright that she saw in her little boy's eyes almost destroyed her where she stood.

"I don't know," Regina said, tearing her eyes away from the ten year old boy just a few feet from her and looking around at the crowd. "The curse was meant to make you guys suffer, I don't know about everyone else."

Snow's hand flew to her mouth to muffle a gasp. "How could you be so cruel?" she demanded.

Regina, for once, had nothing to say.

Lola looked at Henry, the young boy who wanted to be her friend but for some reason never got to be. He was a savior, almost as much as Emma was, yet Lola had never seen him so sad in her life. The picture of her father flashed in her eyes, and she felt her resolve deepen.

"Snow and Charming were right," Lola said, making eyes turn to her. "Regina should be locked up. If there is a way to get back home, the caster of the curse would know. We'll deal with her fate later."

Snow and Lola glanced at each other, understanding flashing in their eyes. They both understood the heavy weight a royals' decisions were, and both hoped that they were making a right one.

XXX

"_You look beautiful, Darling," Rapunzel cooed as her daughter's head maid combed through Goldilocks' long blonde hair._

"_Thank you, Mother," Goldilocks murmured. Months had passed since her running away, and to the young princess they all passed by in a blur. She barely remembered anything but long, boring dinners, numerous dances, and short walks around the border of the palace. She was introduced to many princes and knights, in hopes that she would find someone she was happy with, but she didn't remember any of their names. She knew that her parents were now arranging her marriage, but for some reason she didn't care anymore. She felt nothing more than a cold empty feeling in the place her heart should be._

"_And you're getting better at your dancing," Rapunzel went on, smiling as the maid pinned the young girl's hair up into an elaborate knot at the top of her head. "I just wish that your hair would stay in place..."_

_Goldilocks' hair kept escaping the pins that were holding it up, and the golden curls slithered down her shoulders no matter what._

"_I suppose you got that from me," Rapunzel continued as her daughter stared blankly at her own reflection, not a hint of a smile on her painted lips. "It took me years to finally get the hang of it. I was so used to it down..."_

_The queen's eyes got a faraway look like they always did whenever she spoke of her past. Goldilocks ignored her, wondering when her life turned out to be so robotic. Her face was pale under all the makeup and her gray eyes were dull, but no one but her seemed to notice. She felt like she was locked in a high tower where she watched the world go on without her but no one could hear her scream._

"_Oh, you're finished," Rapunzel smiled, walking up behind her daughter and leaning down to look at her through the reflection._

_Goldilocks wore a deep blue dress with a tight corset that made it hard to breathe. Her mother was strangely more eager with this ball than the rest of them, and she made sure that everything the maids did to the princess was perfect. At first Goldilocks thought it was strange, because her mother hardly ever paid her much attention, but then she did what she always did and took it all in stride._

_Goldilocks thought of Willis and his two parents. She used to hate the Bear family, as she had figured out their names afterward, but now all she felt was pity. Did they really think that money and riches would make them happy? Did it make them happy? She had spent her entire life not needing anything, but she had never felt a glimmer of happiness except when she had ran away. She didn't run away anymore – someone always found her, people always betrayed her. Money replaced their hearts._

"_Let's hope your hair stays up this time," Queen Rapunzel said, patting her daughter gently on the head._

_Goldilocks' hair was up in a large bun with two curls framing her round face. She could see why her mother chose this style particularly – the dress made her growing, lanky figure more woman-like, her high heels made her more tall, and the hair showed off her large, intoxicating gray eyes and her long, slender neck. Goldilocks knew that she looked pretty, and that the boys' eyes would be on her._

"_Goldilocks?" Her mother's voice echoed, as though she were talking from a far away tunnel. "Goldilocks?"_

"_Yes, Mother?"_

"_You really should pay attention, Darling," Rapunzel said. "A man likes a woman who can listen to him."_

"_Yes, Mother."_

"_Well?"_

"_What is it, Mother?"_

"_Are you coming, Darling? You wouldn't want to be late to your own ball."_

"_I'll be there in a second, Mother."_

"_Alright, Darling, just..." Rapunzel's voice faltered, and Goldilocks looked up from gazing longingly out of the window, where the sky was dark and two bright stars beamed down at them. Something in her voice was odd, and for the first time in months the princess felt a glimmer of hope as the mother came forward and caressed her face lovingly. Rapunzel looked terribly sad as she looked down at her daughter._

"_Mom?" Goldilocks said, using a word she hadn't said in months._

"_Goldilocks, just..." something flickered in Rapunzel's eyes and she straightened up, fixing her crown before adjusting her daughter's small silver tiara. "Don't be late, okay?"_

_Goldilocks felt something in her chest pop and her stomach sink. "Okay, Mother."_

_Rapunzel smiled softly at her daughter before ushering the maid out of the room and closing the door behind them. Goldilocks turned from the image of her mother leaving to gaze out the windows again. Her kingdom looked huge, and the people in it looked so tiny, yet they were all important. Above them, the stars shone like beakers, but none more than the two right above her window. For some reason she longed to reach up and catch them as though they were fire flies, but they were just stars, and she was just a girl, so she backed up from the window and left for the ball._

XXX

"Gold!" Lola called, smashing her hand into the bell in his office. "I know you're here, Rumpelstiltskin!"

"And if you keep that up everyone else will know you're here, too," the familiar yet unfamiliar voice of the Dark One said from behind her.

Lola twirled around and glared at the older man, her hands clenched into fists on either side of her. She knew that he wasn't innocent in all of this – Rumpelstiltskin was _never _innocent.

"And judging from the look on your face you don't care," Mr. Gold limped around her and on the other side of the counter. For a moment she wanted to ask why he was suddenly a cripple, but decided that she didn't care. "What is it you want?"

"Where were you just now?" Lola fired off the first question that popped in her head.

Gold raised his eyebrows. "I don't believe that was any of your business."

"You brought magic to Storybrooke hours ago, you should have been here right now," Lola snapped. "What else have you brought here?"

"That answer will come in just a few short moments," Gold said calmly, but there was a hint of triumphant viciousness in his voice that made the young queen's toes curl. "Now is there anything else you want besides knowing what I do in my spare time?"

"Yes," Lola crossed her arms and glared up at the tall man. "Send me back to the Enchanted Forest."

"And why," he said, "would you want that?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Lola demanded. "I'm not from here, I've got a kingdom to run. Who knows what happened to my people back there and I can't stay here not knowing. So send me back."

"Now that is something I can't do," he limped over to a different spot on the other side of the counter and started to flip through a thick book. "Unless you have a magic bean or fairy dust I can't create a portal, and you can't get back to your home."

"But magic is back," Lola insisted, forcing herself not to whine. "There has to be something! A – a spell or a potion!"

"Magic is different here," Gold said reluctantly. "For the time being, I'm not powerful enough to open up a portal big enough for a person."

Lola felt like ripping her hair out in frustration. "This is ridiculous! How can you help Regina create the curse if you don't even have a way back?"

"Maybe because there _is no _way back," Gold snapped, his face hardening. "What we left behind isn't the same place anymore. Regina's curse worked both ways. The Enchanted Forest is gone now, there's nothing there."

"How do you know?" Lola asked desperately.

"Because I do," Gold said condescendingly, the same way everyone spoke to her back when they didn't remember. Lola realized that if Gold had _always _remembered, then he had spoken to her that way on purpose. "Now run along, Dearie, magic is back, and I'm busy."

Lola, realizing that she had nothing else to do, left the shop.

XXX

_The room was hushed as she walked down the wide staircase, all eyes turning to the young princess and gasping at her beauty. The soft candlelight seemed to make her glow with pure white light, and her golden hair flashed platinum. With one pale hand on the banister near her, she took one slow step after another until she reached the ground floor._

_Months ago, she would have blushed and stumbled under all the eyes, but now she felt detached, as though she were a spectator also, but from the inside. This silent, submissive girl who walked with untouchable grace and confidence wasn't her – this spiritless princess who danced and danced and didn't even complain when her feet got swollen and raw was not her. But the princess smiled around at her subjects and guests as though she were apart of them._

_Barely after she took one step nearer to the crowd, a boy broke from the group. He had deep brown hair with matching eyes, and he was a head taller than her. He stood before her smugly, before bowing and offering her a hand to grab, his eyes never leaving hers. Did he see her pain?_

"_Would you care to dance, Princess?" He asked, his voice deep. He was probably a few years older than her, Goldilocks decided, though that thought brought no emotion with it. She danced with many older men._

"_It would be my pleasure," she said warmly, though the response was automatic._

_She grabbed his hand in hers, and he gave it a soft kiss, pressing his warm lips to her knuckles. She quickly glanced at her mother, wondering why he was doing this because no other person had ever done it before, but Rapunzel, from her spot on the far corner with her husband, smiled encouragingly. The boy tugged her along to the dance floor._

_The music started – soft and swan-like – and everyone grabbed partners and danced a slow, boring dance with repeating steps. In her head Goldilocks counted her steps like her mother told her two. _One two three four, one two three four, one two three four, one...

_The boy was a brilliant dancer, and he smiled the entire way as though he were having the time of his life. To be polite and to avoid scolding later, Goldilocks plastered a smile on her face to. They were dancing the way they were supposed to, like everyone in the room was doing, and the princess felt no joy. He had one hand on her waist while the other held her's, and her own hands mirrored his._

_Slowly, the couples and friends and soon-to-be-lovers began to speak to one another, mingling their voices with the music._

"_I'm Prince Charles," the boy said, smiling down at her. Without her heals, he would be too tall for her, but with them the top of her head reached his eyes._

"_I'm Princess Goldilocks," she replied, and, knowing that her mother would reprimand her for being airy and distant, she said, "are you having any fun, Prince Charles?"_

"_I wasn't until you showed up," the prince whispered in her ear, as though it were a big secret. The contact with his lips on her ear made her jerk slightly in alarm, not being used to other people so near. The prince politely backed up so that they were in a respectable distance, but Goldilocks was alarmed that he had did it, and she felt like her eyes were open for the first time in months. Interest, she realized, she was interested in this boy._

"_Is there something you don't like about the party?" she challenged, wondering if he had the bravery to say something criticizing or if he was just using a line. "I'm sure if you tell my maids they'll be happy to fix what ever it is that's bothering you."_

"_Oh, no, it's nothing that they can fix," Prince Charles shrugged. "I never have fun at these sort of parties. They're so boring."_

"_What about me makes it fun?" Goldilocks asked. "All I've done is dance."_

_Prince Charles' gaze went from her high bun to her silver shoes, before meeting her eyes again. "You're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. I thought you were a fairy at first."_

"_Have you met a fairy before?" Goldilocks asked eagerly._

"_No, I'm not allowed out of the castle," Prince Charles' gaze dropped, and the princess felt a tug at her heart. "But you're what I imagine them to look like, only smaller."_

_Goldilocks laughed at his sheepish expression. "I know what you mean. My mother acts like I'm made of glass."_

"_Wasn't your mother trapped in a tower all her life?"_

"_I know what you're thinking – she should understand, right?" Goldilocks raised one eyebrow at the tall boy who was becoming more and more handsome to her. "But she doesn't. I don't know, maybe she faced an ogre and got scared; now she thinks if I take one foot outside then I'll be gobbled up by some monster."_

_Prince Charles laughed, and Goldilocks marveled at the sound. She hadn't heard a real laugh in... how long? She couldn't remember._

"_What about you?" she asked._

"_My dad thinks that everyone is his enemy, which makes them my enemy," Charles shrugged in acceptance. "I suppose he's right. But that doesn't stop me wishing..."_

_Goldilocks smiled at him, amazed at how much his thoughts echoed her own. Finally, a kindred spirit, someone who would understand her misery. He surprised her when he gathered her up in his arms before twirling her around, making the dancers around them back up a few steps in order to avoid getting hit. She burst into laughter at their startled faces, and let him twirl her again._

_Much too soon, the music stopped, and Prince Charles bowed to her, bringing her knuckles to his lips. This time, Goldilocks welcomed it._

"_It has been _my _pleasure dancing with you, Princess Goldilocks," he said to her._

_Goldilocks smiled, even though she felt sad at watching him go. "Will I see you again?" she asked before she could stop herself._

"_I'll be the last one to leave this party," Prince Charles told her. "I'll wait to say good bye to you, if that's what you wish."_

"_I wish it," Goldilocks smiled, feeling butterflies flutter in her stomach at the thought._

"_Then I'll wait for you," Prince Charles grinned, before disappearing through the crowd._

_Goldilocks didn't have time to reflect on what happened, though she very much wanted to, because someone else approached her – someone she recognized and considered a role model and friend._

"_Aurora," the young princess beamed at the older one._

_The older princess smiled, her blue eyes shining. "I saw you with that boy," she said, grabbing the blonde's hands and dancing with her. "Is he going to be your lucky prince?"_

"_I've only just met him," Goldilocks protested._

"_One glance is all it takes," Aurora remarked. "I remember when I first saw Phillip."_

"_My father?"_

"_Oh no!" Aurora laughed. "_My _Phillip. He's younger, he's handsome, he's brave... he's the most special person I've ever met."_

"_Oh," Goldilocks murmured, now seeing the difference between Aurora's Phillip and her father. Her father was not brave in the slightest. Sure, he faced an evil witch and climbed up a high tower by her mother's long hair, but that was about it._

"_I can just picture you in a white dress," Aurora beamed. "Surrounded by blue flowers."_

_Goldilocks cringed. Like becoming Queen, she saw marriage as just another chain and ball keeping her from flying to freedom. She didn't want to marry – not even if it was with a boy like Prince Charles, who she hardly knew._

"_I wouldn't go that far," Goldilocks laughed half-heartedly, remembering why she and Aurora weren't as close as they could be. The beautiful older princess was blinded by romance stories and wedding bells. She would never have an adventure or freedom like Goldilocks craved._

"_Well, why not?" Aurora demanded. "You never know, it could be your greatest decision."_

_The song ended, and Goldilocks waved the older girl goodbye. Again, before she could escape to a far corner and day dream, someone stepped in front of her and asked for a dance. It was another boy, but after the dance was over – with the princess counting 'one, two, three, four' over and over again – she forgot his name, just like all the others – except Charles._

_The dances were long a dull, and no one would let the poor princess sit down and take a break, not that Goldilocks showed any sign of needing a break. Her face was smooth of any emotion except polite interest as the many men spoke about themselves. Her eyes were on them, her head face them, her feet mirrored them, but her mind was on someone else._

_At the end of the ball, Goldilocks stood by the door, waving goodbye to everyone. When the last person left, she felt her heart drop to the cold floor below her. Charles hadn't waited for her. She felt like hitting herself in the head – hadn't her mother told her not to be so forward? That it scared men away? But there she was almost stepping on his toes as she asked him to wait for her. She felt suddenly hot from embarrassment, wishing she could replay everything over again and maybe-_

"_Princess," his voice was as sweet as honey, and she felt his presence behind her before she saw him._

"_You can call me Goldilocks, Prince Charles," she replied, brushing the curls hanging on one side of her face behind her ear._

"_Only if you call me Charles," he shot back, the corners of his lips tugging into a smile._

_Goldilocks smiled in return, but then uncertainty gripped her heart, and she wondered what she should do with her arms, which hung uselessly on either side of her. She was going to cross them, but decided against it. She put them behind her back and interlaced their fingers, hoping the gesture didn't seem awkward._

"_I was just out back in your garden," Charles said, apparently unaware with the awkward tension in the air. "It's the most beautiful sight I've ever seen."_

"_Yes, I suppose it is," Goldilocks allowed. "I walk through it so much that I know all the flowers' names."_

"_Would you like to walk through it again?" Charles offered his arm, and the young blonde took it with her own, letting him take her through the back door and out into the cold night._

_What she said about her garden was correct. She knew the roses, the tulips, the daisies, and the thalias. As she walked past a rose bush, she felt Charles' eyes on her, and she smiled._

"_Which flower do you like the most?" she asked him._

"_I don't know," Charles answered, ripping his eyes away from her and gazing around the splendid garden. "They're all... nice."_

"_What, no charming words?" Goldilocks laughed. "I was beginning to look forward to them."_

"_No, it's just seeing you in this garden... it leaves me speechless," he looked down at her's, and somehow his eyes glowed more than the two stars, which, strangely, were started to fade like the rest._

_At first, Goldilocks was speechless herself. He was just so handsome with his wind-rustled hair and friendly brown eyes, that all words got stuck in her throat. For the first time ever, she wondered she would be alright living as a princess, with Charles to keep her company. She could picture them walking through the garden almost every night, talking about fun things; she could picture them confronting their parents and traveling out to the villages they ruled, helping their subjects directly; she could see the both of them falling for each other, like so many couples did. It wouldn't be so bad, if he stayed, she decided, it could actually be fun._

_Realizing that she was staring, she tore her gaze from his and looked down at the velvet red roses. "There's the charming line I was waiting for," she said teasingly, though it came out like a hushed whisper._

_Charles laughed breathlessly, as though he, too, were coming out from a daze._

_Goldilocks turned to him and smiled. He was very sweet, and not as arrogant as she thought he was going to be. He was different from the other princes._

_Their deep thoughts were interrupted by a clatter of heeled shoes and low words. At first, the princess thought that her mother was coming to look for her, but the voices were coming from over one of the tall hedges, and they walked right past the young royals. Goldilocks would have went on ignoring it if she hadn't have heard her mother's voice._

"_...I don't think so, Regina," Queen Rapunzel hissed quietly. "Find some other kingdom to take over, because you'll never get this one."_

_Charles' eyes went wide and he glanced at Goldilocks, who mirrored his expression. Putting a finger to her lips, she tiptoed after the voices, with him close behind._

"_You seem to forget who you're talking to, Rapunzel," an unfamiliar voice sneered. "Don't make me lock you back up in your tower."_

_Goldilocks barely stopped a gasp from escaping her lips, but Charles wasn't so smooth. There was a pause from the other side of the hedge. Charles stared down at the princess, who looked back, her heart beating quickly in her chest. Luckily, the queen and whoever she was speaking to brushed it off as irrelevant._

"_You do and Phillip will come and get you like he did last time," Rapunzel said back coolly. "I might have cut my hair since I was in that tower but it can still go back. Besides, even if you do get rid of me, my daughter is still alive and well, and she'll just step up in my place."_

"_What's stopping me from killing you both right now?" Regina snapped back._

"_I know why you want my kingdom, Regina," Rapunzel said. "We have the best army. But my army is loyal and will only serve the true heir. You kill me and my daughter, and they'll find a way to repay the favor." The long-haired queen paused to let this sink in, before continuing. "Your thirst for revenge is making you insane. First you lock met in a tower because I wouldn't tell you where Snow White went, and now you're trying to steal my kingdom, the thing I love the most. I hope you know that no matter what you do now, you will never be forgiven for the crimes you have committed, and I hope the guilt tears you down."_

"_Brave words, Rapunzel," Regina snapped. "Let's hope they won't be your last."_

"_Make as many threats as you wish," the queen retorted. "But it will never bring you satisfaction. Only love will do that, and your own selfish, cold heart won't let you find it. You're rotten to the core."_

_Goldilocks could almost feel the anger burning off the other woman, and she felt a flash of fear for her mother._

"_I will have this kingdom, Rapunzel," Regina said. "But first... I will punish you for denying my wishes, by attacking the one thing you _truly_ love the most."_

_Goldilocks heard footsteps fade away, and assumed that Regina had left. Charles placed a warm hand on the princess's shoulder, and she turned to look at him._

"_What can I do?" he asked her immediately._

"_Nothing," Goldilocks said. "That woman sounds dangerous, I don't want you hurt in whatever is going on between she and my mother."_

"_But she threatened your kingdom," Charles protested. "She's going to hurt your people. Please, let me and my father help you."_

"_This is between my mother and the woman who locked her up," Goldilocks said firmly, grabbing his hand. "There is no reason why anyone else should get involved."_

"_Aren't you worried she might get hurt?"_

"_My mother handled her just fine," the princess said. "My mother might not look it, but she's strong. How else could she survive being in a high tower for so long with no one but herself?"_

_Reluctantly, Charles nodded, and the princess smiled at him reassuringly. Their moment was interrupted by footsteps behind them. They both turned to see Rapunzel, red in the cheeks, gracefully walking towards them._

"_Mother," Goldilocks said, stepping away from the prince and wondering what to say to the woman that was just threatened not four seconds ago._

"_Darling," Rapunzel smiled warmly at her daughter and petted her hair back before looking at the prince. "Prince Charles, I thought you left a few minutes ago."_

"_I couldn't resist a walk with your daughter, Your Highness," Charles smiled charmingly. "I hope I didn't cause her to break any rules."_

"_You broke no rules," Rapunzel assured him. "But I think my daughter should get some rest. It was a big day today."_

_Charles nodded politely before bowing to the two royals and strolling off to the front, where his carriage would be waiting._

_The second he was out of earshot, Rapunzel spun eagerly around, her long, thick hair smashing Goldilocks' legs._

"_Do you like him?" the queen asked eagerly. "I knew I picked right! He's the only boy you've brought out here."_

"_Picked? What do you mean picked?" Goldilocks demanded._

"_He's to be your husband," the queen beamed. "Your father agreed. His kingdom is large and he's very well-mannered and polite. You two danced beautifully together."_

"_But Mother, I don't want to marry him," Goldilocks insisted. "I have my whole life ahead of me, I can pick later."_

"_Darling, I know you can," Rapunzel said. "But your father and I think this will be good for you. You're still dreaming about running off, I know you are, but if you found love here in the palace... you'll be happy."_

"_Love isn't going to make me happy," Goldilocks all but wailed. "Freedom is! I don't know Charles – I don't love him! If you make me marry him then I'll never speak to you again!"_

"_You'll change your mind after the marriage," Rapunzel assured her. "Don't worry, it won't be a quick thing. He'll come over and you can speak more. Don't you want a friend in the palace? He can stay here for a couple of days if that's what you'd like."_

_A few minutes ago, Goldilocks would have loved for Charles to stay, but not at that moment. The thought of him greeting her every morning and spending every second with her almost made her want to throw up in the rosebushes. She didn't want to look into his eyes and see that it was the only sight the future had in store for her. To be chained to him and to be forced to make decisions with him would be a nightmare – not because of who he was but because of who he'd become; her husband._

"_No," Goldilocks took a step away from her mother. Looking at her now, all she felt was a deep, terrifying hatred that scared herself. "No! I will not marry him! You can't make me!"_

"_Darling-"_

_Rapunzel reached out to pet her daughter's hair, but Goldilocks smacked her hand away and ran back into the palace._

XXX

"Hey, Goldilocks?"

Lola turned at her name to see a car driving slowly next to her. Red and Henry smiled out at her, and she forced a smile back.

"Need a ride anywhere?" Red asked.

"I'm not going anywhere in particular," Lola admitted.

"That's great, neither are we," Henry smiled.

With a shrug, Lola got into the back seat with them and they drove through the town. Looking around, Lola could see that being an orphan wasn't the only curse Regina had destined her for. The town was tiny and confined with no outside contacts with anyone else. Lola had always hated the town, and Goldilocks would have to.

"What's got you down, Goldilocks?" Red asked.

Lola wondered if she should tell the truth – that she wanted revenge on Regina for tearing her from her home, but figured that wouldn't be a good thing to say in front of Henry, so she said, "I'm just confused. I have two lifetimes in my head – one for Lola Lorie and the other for Queen Goldilocks... I just don't know who I should be anymore."

"I'm both," Red said. "If someone calls me Ruby or Red I'd turn around."

"How do you keep your thoughts in order, though?" Lola asked. "Lola and Goldilocks are so different from each other. Don't you feel different – I mean, Red was a fighter, and Ruby was a..."

"You can say it," Red smiled with a laugh. "I wore _a lot _of small clothing."

"How do you make sense of it all?" Lola continued.

"I don't know," Red said. "It's like I'm Red, but with different opinions. I think what happened here changed us all, but we're still the same people we once were."

"Which would you rather be called, then?"

"Ruby feels like a nickname," Red said.

They were silent for a moment, just driving around before Red stepped on the breaks.

"Let's go in for some sandwiches," she said, and they all went into Granny's.

The moment they were all in and the glass door closed behind them, the floor shook beneath them. The lights flickered on and off and the people in the shop fell off their chairs. Lola immediately grabbed Henry and hugged him close to her.

"What was that?" One of the dwarfs sitting in a booth demanded.

"I don't know," Lola squinted out of the window, where she could see a dark, creepy _something _flying over the houses. "But it's coming our way. Get under the tables, everyone!"

Red grabbed both Lola and Henry and ushered them to the back of the counter while everyone else hid under tables and grabbed knives as weapons to defend themselves.

"Red, keep Henry safe," Lola ordered, grabbing two sharp knives as she went back to the door.

"What about you?" Red demanded, pushing Henry under the table, ignoring his struggles.

"I've got a Wraith to take care of," Lola said over her shoulder before leaving the shop.

The Wraith was more deadly than she remembered seeing in the many books she read stuck in her palace. In the book they described it as a skeletal figure with a black cape over it, but in real life it was much, much worse. The figure floated smoothly through the air with a torn pitch black cape, a bare, rotting skeletal hand, and glowing red tunnels for eyes.

"Hey!" Lola called, lifting her knifes before her in a way that was painfully familiar. In her mind flashed plenty of battles where she had two of her trusty knives held comfortably in her grips as she fought evil witches, pixies, dragons, wolves, mermaids, and many more supernatural things. Her heart tugged for the daggers, but she knew that she would never see them again, so she pushed the thought to the back of her mind and focused at the task at hand. The Wraith turned to her, ten feet above her, and swooped down.

For one terrifying moment, all Lola could do was stare up at the swooping figure who was seconds away from taking her soul, but then, with a new found strength in her limbs, she lifted her knives and took a swipe at it's face.

The shriek it gave when the point of the knives tore through the rotting flesh of it's face made the hair on Lola's arms stand on end.

She didn't get to feel an ounce of pride before the Wraith extended one skeletal hand towards her, it's glowing red eyes showing no sign of any emotion. She leaped forward, the knives raised above her head, and she brought them down on the creature's arm, where they stuck between the bones. The creature shrieked again and reared up, Lola hanging off his arms for dear life. It waved it's limbs sharply, trying to flick her off of it, but the knives wouldn't budge, and neither would she. With a mighty yank of her right hand, one knife freed itself from the wrist of the Wraith, and she was left hanging one-handed. The creature grabbed her arm with his other hand and bent it slowly backwards at an unnatural angle. Lola screamed when the pressure became too much, and knew that her arm was moments away from breaking.

"Hey – Wraith!"

Lola, eyes squinted with pain, felt a jolt of fear for her new friend. "No, Red – run! Protect Henry!"

"I will," Red promised, taking off her red high heels and taking aim with them. "But not before I protect you, too."

Red threw a red heel, and the sharp end struck the Wraith in the head. More out of shock than pain, the creature let go of Lola, who fell eight feet before landing on the floor. If she had been fourteen again, she would have sprained her ankle, but she was used to falling from high places now, and she landed cat-like on the floor. With one of her knives gone, stuck in the arm of the Wraith, she felt strangely naked, but she kept a hold of her last knife and backed up to where Red stood, another high heeled shoe ready to throw.

"Thanks," Lola gasped, her arm throbbing from almost being snapped in two.

"No problem, kid," Red said, throwing the shoe and angering the Wraith. Lola shriveled at the name, but decided against commenting on it. It was what everyone had called her as Lola, and old habits died hard. "You have any idea how to kill it?"

"No," Lola admitted. "It's not possible since it's already dead. It must be after someone's soul; it only ever stops until it kills its pray."

"It doesn't look like its hunting," Red remarked, watching the creature slowly but surely dig the knife from its arm and toss it to the floor. Lola had to stop herself from diving towards the fallen weapon, knowing that the act would leave her back wide open and the Wraith would be free to kill her.

"Maybe it's not after anyone in the diner," the young princess said. "But it doesn't matter who its after. Whoever stands in its way will be killed, as well."

"So do we let it get the person it's after?"

For a moment, Lola was going to say yes, but then she remembered Henry, and how he was so sure that heroes could save everyone no matter how hard it was, and decided against it. If a little boy like Henry, who went through so many tragedies in his life, could believe that everyone had good in them, then who was she to prove him wrong?

"No," Lola said, crouching down as the Wraith lowered itself to them. "These things don't just kill their pray, they destroy them. Whoever he's after doesn't deserve that."

Red nodded, agreeing with her. "I'm all out of weapons."

"I'll distract it," Lola told her. "Get that knife over there. And, Red?" the black haired girl looked expectantly at her. "You can still run, you know."

"And miss all the action?" Red smirked. "Nice try, Goldilocks."

Lola smiled at her. "Well, I try," she remarked. "Get ready to dive."

Lola, with well-practiced aim, threw the knife at the Wraith. She had been throwing daggers for years, and her aim was so perfect that it still amazed her, so she knew that when she threw it that it would land right where she wanted it to – right between the soul-reaper's eyes. If the creature were alive, it would have been killed instantly, but it wasn't, the the blow only disoriented it long enough for Red to grab the other knife and throw it at him also. Red was more of a tracker than a warrior, so her aim wasn't as good, but it embedded itself deep in the Wraith's stomach, making it cringe backwards.

"We need more knives!" Red called warningly.

The Wraith roared with anger and ripped the knives from its body, throwing them through the air and into the darkness, far away from the two girls. Lola felt her heart sink as it glared down at them, and wondered if it was the end for her, and if she would see her father and mother wherever she was going.

The Wraith swooped down on the two girls, both of his hands trained at them, and Lola felt both pain and numbness flow through her, but she couldn't escape it. It was as though something inside her were trying to scratch its way out of her face, ripping and tearing at every molecule in her body. Lola's mouth was open in a silent scream, unable to make any noise as her soul was being slowly ripped from her.

"Stay away from them!"

If she wasn't in so much pain, she would have screamed for poor Henry to run, but he was brave and impulsive, and he ran forward with a rolled up newspaper that's tip was on fire. He ran in front of the two girls and raised the makeshift torch towards the Wraith, which recoiled. The second its hands came away, both Lola and Red fell to the ground, breathing heavy and too weak to get up and run.

"Get back!" Henry shouted, waving the newspaper more frantically, frightening the soul-taker into cowering back up into the air. "Lola – it's leaving!"

Lola lifted her head to see that what the boy said was right. The caped figure was disappearing over the rooftops, but she knew that it just got frustrated with them and was heading towards its real pray.

"Henry, you shouldn't have done that," Lola scolded, struggling to her feet.

"But you and Ruby were in trouble," Henry replied. "Face it; you needed my help."

Lola would have denied it if it were anyone else, but Henry would always hold a special place in her heart, and she nodded in agreement.

"Come on, hero," Lola said. "Go with Red to get those sandwiches we were supposed to eat."

"What about you?" Red asked.

The young queen picked up the two fallen knives and weighed them in her grip. They felt too light and unbalanced; she would definitely need to make new ones. "I'm going to go finish the thing off. It went into the church. Whoever it is in there is in trouble, and I need to help them."

"We're coming with you," Henry said.

"You can't," Lola said sadly. "It's too dangerous, Henry, and I don't feel up to seeing you in a hospital bed again any time soon."

"But you can't face it alone," Henry looked too serious for a kid his age. In his hand the newspaper was only three inches long now, and she worried that he would burn his hand. "You need our help."

"You're too young to battle a Wraith," Lola shot back.

"So are you," Henry retorted. "Just because you're a queen doesn't mean you're invincible."

Even as an orphan, no one had ever spoken to her like that, and the fact that little sweet Henry was the first amazed Lola to no end. Magic was changing them all.

"Lola, Henry's right," Red said. "Besides, you need a car if you want to get their fast, and in this land you're not old enough to drive."

Lola would have growled in frustration if she wasn't in such a hurry, but since she was she just sighed and agreed with them. Little did they know that they were already too late, and when they got there their friends Emma and Snow White were already gone, taken to a land that might no longer exist.

XXX

_Goldilocks lay under the many thick blankets, her head buried somewhere under the mountain of pillows. She was crying her eyes out, feeling more than she felt in months. It wasn't happiness or relief or love, but pure grief and loneliness. She had never felt more alone in her life, so misunderstood and unloved. She wished that everyone would just go away and let her live her life, but they wouldn't, and she was stuck playing princess while everyone else had fun._

_She realized how selfish she sounded, but she also knew that it was selfish of everyone else to expect a fourteen year old girl to throw her life away for them. She wished that her mother and father would just make another kid so that the burden could be passed along to them, and that when she ran away no one would come looking for her._

_She sniffled, wiping the tear tracks under her eyes before rolling over and staring up at her marble white ceiling. It was blank, cold, plain – everything that her future held._

"_Please save me from this fate," she prayed, looking out the window again. The two stars were shining brighter than ever, and she found herself praying to them. "Please save me."_

_The stars glowed so bright for a moment that she turned away because they burned her eyes, but when she looked at them again they were just ordinary stars. She felt the small brink of hope splutter and die in her chest, and another sob escaped her._

_She thought of Charles, who had been so kind and caring towards her, worrying about her mother and her kingdom, saying charming things to her as though she were the only girl that existed, and she hated him. She hated his kind eyes and ruffled brown hair, his smug smirk and his proper clothes. She hated that he made her feel awkward and flustered just by looking at her and she hated that he seemed to always have an answer for every remark she made. Had he known what her mother planned? Was that the reason why he was so kind? Or was he simply a nice boy who shared the same views as her and actually liked her? She despised not knowing, and she despised him._

_She breathed out a frustrated sigh, and blinked with alarm when she saw white mist escape her lips. Her fire was roaring, yet she was cold._

_Goldilocks blinked out of the window and got to her feet. When she gazed out, everything was still and silent, although she could have sworn that she saw something move. Shaking her head and rubbing her eyes, she figured that she must have been sleeping, and she crawled back into the bed._

_But the moment she turned around a shadow passed over her – literally. It was a flying shadow with glowing eyes and the figure of a lean, lightly muscular boy. She gasped at the sight of it, and backed up so quickly that she fell on the love seat in front of her window._

"_What are you?" Goldilocks demanded. "What are you doing in my room?"_

_The shadow said nothing, but extended one hand towards her, beckoning her towards it._

"_If you think I'm going to take your hand than you're mad," Goldilocks snapped, angered with people taking advantage of her and betraying her. "Leave my room quickly or I'll call my guards."_

_The shadow tilted it's head at her and extended it's arm again, but this time she heard something. It wasn't words at all, but a music. The sound was pipes being played, and it came from the very back of her mind. In the music she could hear a story – a nice story where boys danced around a wild fire and children roared like animals as they ran through endless woods, it told of mermaids and pirates and fairies; it showed endless happiness and forever youth, free of responsibilities and suffering._

"_You're here to lead me to my freedom?" Goldilocks said in wonderment._

_The shadow extended his arm again._

_The young princess hesitated before glaring at the shadow, still hearing the soft music playing in the back of her mind. "You better not be leading me into a trap or you _will _regret it, shadow-thing."_

_The shadow said nothing._

_With no other warnings or hesitations creeping into her mind, and the music slowly playing louder and louder, Goldilocks took the hand of the shadow, and let it lead her out the window._


	3. Trapped

Chapter Three – Trapped

XXX

_The girl ran as fast as her thin legs could carry her, holding up her long skirt so it wouldn't get trapped. The forest was so dark that she couldn't see three feet in front of her, and she crashed into trees and tripped over logs too many times to count. In the distance she could hear a wolf howl, a crow squawk, and the people chasing her shout and swear._

_She was sure that she had never been more scared in her entire life, and she wondered if it was all worth it. Of course, it was worth it, she knew, but at the moment she was doubting everything in her life._

_The girl could hear a stream running a few feet ahead of her, but it was ignored until she tripped and fell right into it. She cried out in pain as the sharp little rocks jutted out and scraped her palms and knees. Water soaked the front of her dress and made her wild, golden blonde hair limp. If it wasn't a life or death situation, she would have curled up and cried, eyes closed and praying for it all to go away._

_But it was her life on the line, so she brushed aside all her sorrows and crawled out of the stream. The leaves stuck to her hair and moist skin, and she was sure that she looked like some crazy swamp monster._

_The thud of a couple dozen footsteps grew louder, and the girl's heart raced even quicker. If this was the end, she wouldn't go down without a fight._

_Her eyes flickered around her. The trees were tall and bare, no sigh of bushes she could crawl into, and the soft dirt would easily show her footprints if she tried to trick the people and run in a different direction. Feeling like she was just dragging out the inevitable, she stumbled to her feet and kept running forward._

_Her heavy dress was dragging her down, and her wet hair stuck to her face and bare arms. The dirt and leaves that embedded themselves in her hair and dress made her long to scratch her skin off, but she knew it would only hurt herself. Giving up was beginning to sound more and more friendly to her._

_She stumbled over her own feet and she reached up to balance herself against a tree before running again, but she forgot to lift her skirts, and the stray branches snagged at it, making her fall down a small hill and hit a large log. A sob escaped her throat as she felt bruises form on her arms and legs, and she lay there, finally stopping to run and chase._

_She closed her eyes and listened to the thuds of her soon-to-be-captors, bracing herself for the end. However, it wasn't meant to be._

"_Strange place to take a nap, Dearie."_

_The girl's eyes flew open, and she stared up at the most feared being in all the realms. The scaly face of Rumpelstiltskin leered down at her, his hands clasped together in front of him. She had never met him before, but the stories were accurate about his unique appearance – from his sharp fingernails to his bleeding red eyes._

"_Are you one of the people chasing me?" the girl asked weakly, propping herself up on her bloodied elbows._

"_If I were," Rumpelstiltskin sat on the log she had crashed into and leaned down, a hand on the side of his mouth as though he were telling a secret, "you'd be dead."_

_His voice was high and nasally, and he spoke with fast-witted humor._

"_Then what do you want?" the girl asked, finally sitting up fully and glaring up weakly at the dark creature in front of her._

"_It's not about what _I _want," the Dark One smiled widely, his eyes gleaming with trickery. "It's about what _you _want, Dearie."_

_The girl felt a flash of hope break through her despair. Of course she knew that Rumpelstiltskin was evil and couldn't be trusted, but he never broke a promise, and he always had an answer to everyone's problems. If anyone could get her out of her sticky situation, it'd be him._

"_And what would you want in return?" she demanded._

"_I want you to owe me a favor," Rumpelstiltskin said, getting to his feet and strolling away from her._

"_What is the favor?" the girl asked suspiciously._

"_Well, if I tell you now it wouldn't be much of a surprise!" the Dark One gave a giggle, putting the tips of his fingers together in front of him. "Well? Do we have a deal?"_

_The girl frowned. She would have preferred to know what he wanted, at least then she would know what she was giving up. But she could hear the people chasing her coming closer, and she knew she had no choice._

"_What would you do for me?" she asked._

"_I'll make sure that whatever fate the person who's chasing you has in store for you won't be permanent," Rumpelstiltskin said._

"_Why not just flash me out of here now?" she demanded._

"_Because then nothing will go as planned," his vague answer did nothing to sooth the girl, and she bit her lip in deep thought. "I'd make up my mind now, Dearie, they're not far off."_

_The girl gulped, hearing the shouting become louder and more prominent. "Fine! Fine. It's a deal. How are you going to help me?"_

"_With this," the Dark One waved his hand, and caught between his long thin fingers was small vial filled with a sparkling gold liquid. "Drink it, and you'll be able to escape your fate."_

_He tossed the vial to her, and she fumbled with the delicate glass before holding it in one palm. She looked down at it, at the thing that looked so simple yet would save her life, and felt tears build in her eyes._

"_Thank you-" she had looked up to where she felt he was standing, but he had disappeared as soon as he had came. She looked back down at the vial, hoping it would still work, and opened it. It was an inch from her lips when it was ripped from her grasp._

"_Well, well, what do we have here?" the figure before her wrinkled her nose at the potion in their hand. "Poison? A cloaking spell?"_

_The girl glared up at the tall figure above her. "Give it back."_

_The person laughed cruelly. "Why? So you can escape after I just caught you? I don't think so, Blondie."_

_The person grasped the girl's chin and raised her up so that gray eyes met brown._

"_Now," Regina sneered. "Where can I find Snow White, Rapunzel?"_

XXX

Days passed since Snow and Emma's disappearance, and things were just as chaotic as they left them, if not more. The queen finally got her grip on magic back, which scared everyone into a frenzy, and if it wasn't for David everyone would be out of town without any memory of why they left in the first place. Lola didn't want to leave, of course, she would never want to become that lonely orphan ever again.

The only good news that came after Snow and Emma left was that the Enchanted Forest _was _still there, and that the people survived there. David had told Lola while she was skipping school – again – but she wasn't foolish enough to not consider the possibility that her father wasn't alive. It had been years, anything could have happened.

Lola mindlessly ran her fingers over the trees she walked through, their rough bark leaving little marks under her palms. She liked to come here now-a-days, mostly because it was a place no one could bother her. The only reason people came up to her now was to scold her for not going to school – as though she were any mere child! - or to ask for help with one of their many, many problems.

She was a queen, she knew this, she shouldn't be hiding in forest because she didn't want to help people. But sometimes the orphan Lola inside of her fought to the front of her mind, demanding to be left alone and to act like a child once in a blue. She hated it when this Lola showed up, but she couldn't deny the longing, so sometimes – not frequently – she listened.

The forest in Storybrooke was nothing like the forest around her castle, but if she closed her eyes and stayed perfectly still, she could almost imagine. Somewhere far off in the distance, a blue jay would flap her wings, a crow would squawk, a chipmunk would scamper, and when the wind blew and she took a deep breath, she could smell the soft maple and the fresh, crisp air.

How she missed her woods.

Lola sighed and sat down on a fallen log. If she were back home she would be able to roam her palace halls, gossip with her maids, visit her villages, see her father...

She didn't pretend that she was ever close with her parents, but they were family, they shared traits and experiences, and they were people she knew she could trust. In Storybrooke, she never had that.

She sniffed. She was growing self-pitying and sentimental; not something someone wishes in their queen. She got to her feet and brushed the dirt and splinters off the seat of her jeans before walking back the way she came. If anyone saw her in there alone and sad they would instantly worry, they would comfort her and treat her like a child, and then they would demand to know why she wasn't in school.

There she was pitying herself again.

She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She kept walking, pretending she didn't feel it. When she was a good ten feet away from the place she felt it, she heard the unmistakable sound of a foot crushing a dried up leaf in its path; again, she pretended not to notice.

The person stalking her had no skill in being stealthy, and she heard him following her for a good twenty paces before she took a giant leap behind and tree and stayed as silent as possible, not even breathing.

She heard the person following her pause in confusion, wondering where she had gone, before they ambled forward almost clumsily. They were heading in the right direction, and Lola pressed herself more in the tree's bark as the person was two feet away from her. She didn't take in their features – she only saw deep brown hair and a strong build before she pounced on their back and wrapped her arms around their neck, pulling back to make it hard for them to breathe.

The man flailed for one startling moment, before he elbowed Lola in her stomach, making her double over from shock and pain. He whipped around to gaze at his attacker – for a moment too long, because she already got over her own attack and she punched him hard in the gut. She didn't stop there, though, she kept punching and scratching at any piece of flesh she could reach – namely his face. He grabbed at her wrist, and her legs instantly kicked out and nabbed at his shins.

He cried out in pain, his hold on her loosening, and she yanked away from him, grabbed a fallen branch, and started to hit him over the head with it.

"Ow! Ow! Stop – Goldilocks! It's _me_ – it's Charles!"

The name didn't register at first, so she got a good five more hits before she froze mid-swing. A distant memory came to her mind of a handsome boy kissing her knuckles and smiling at her as they walked through a beautiful garden. That had been three decades ago, but the moment still made butterflies attack her stomach.

She squinted at the stranger before her, hardly daring to believe it. The man was still standing in a crouched position, his large hands held defensively over his head. He had a head full of longish dark brown hair, matching eyes with a dark frame of eyelashes, tan, scarred skin, and hard features. If it was Charles, he had aged since the last time she'd seen him – but not in features. He looked older, somehow, more mature; as though he had went through many hardships in life when he couldn't have been four years older than her.

When he realized that she wasn't going to hit him, he stood to his full height, which towered over her. She felt her defenses grow up again when he looked down at her, but then she seen the similarities. The flushed cheeks, the boyish smile, the mischievous glint in his eyes.

The branch fell from her numb fingers.

"_Charles_."

XXX

"_I'll never tell you where she is," Rapunzel snapped. "Never! So you might as well kill me now."_

"_Oh, how sweet," Regina smiled, straightening up and leering down at the fallen village girl. Her expression looked so much like Rumpelstiltskin's that Rapunzel wondered if they knew each other. Of course, they have had to, since they were both powerful magic users, and they've had to have crossed paths at one point in their lives. "You're willing to risk your life for an ex-princess."_

"_Gladly," Rapunzel said, jutting out her chin bravely._

_Regina's smirk fell, and she glared hatefully at the older girl. Her magic was still raw, but powerful, and if it took a woman's life to get her revenge then she would gladly pay the price afterward. The queen remembered her very first kill – a magic user that was supposed to replace her under Rumpelstiltskin's teachings – and she remembered her second and third and tenth. This girl would just be another distant memory._

"_Then I will gladly rip your heart out and let you watch me crush it," Regina snarled viciously._

_The village girl's eyes flashed with fear, and the queen didn't have a moment to feel any satisfaction before the girl lunged at her, knocking them both to the ground. Rapunzel grabbed the vial and drank deeply. It was big enough for three gulps, and when it was empty she tilted her head back and smiled. Whatever Rumpelstiltskin had given her, it felt good flowing through her, and she suddenly felt golden like it's color._

_The feeling only lasted for a moment. Regina grabbed the woman's thin throat, and clenched her fists as much as she could – using both her own physical strength and heavy magic. The blonde haired woman stared at her with wide, frightened eyes._

"_What was that that you drank?" Regina snarled, throwing the girl back with inhuman strength._

_Rapunzel crashed into the fallen log, breathing heavy to catch her breath. She looked up at the younger girl, the Evil Queen, and felt a great strength build up in her that had nothing to do with the magical potion._

"_Rumpelstiltskin gave it to me," Rapunzel smirked. "It keeps you from killing me," the girl leaned forward, a mean smirk on her beautiful face. "It looks like I'm not the only one who doesn't want you to kill the rightful ruler of the kingdom, Your Majesty."_

_The young queen gave a harsh growl and clenched her fists, hardly daring to believe it. Her mentor, her teacher, the one who was to help her get her revenge on Snow White, her most hated enemy, was going against her. Of course, she knew that her old scaly friend must have had his ulterior motives, but she had thought that essentially their missions were one and the same – to kill the worthless, lying princess who caused the death of the man she loved. Yet he had helped the useless peasant in front of her, just so that Snow White could keep living._

"_How do I know you're not lying?" Regina challenged, her dark eyes narrowing down at the long haired girl crouched before her._

"_You don't," Rapunzel replied, hoping that the evil queen would believe her lie. "Just try to kill me. Let's see how that will backfire."_

_Regina was tempted – she was so tempted to wipe that smug grin off the older woman's face – but she couldn't risk it. Rumpelstiltskin was powerful enough to prevent someone from dying – and powerful enough to cause pain to the person trying to kill. She wouldn't kill the woman, but that didn't mean she was going to let her go._

"_Very well," the Evil Queen threw her shoulders back and curled her lip in disgust at the girl. "You win this, village girl." Rapunzel couldn't stop the relieved smile that spilled across her lips; however, this was taken just as soon as it came. "He might have stopped me from killing you, but he didn't stop me from giving you a much, much worse fate." Ragina gestured for her dozens of guards to come forward. "Guards! Take her."_

XXX

Charles smiled charmingly at her and bowed, taking her hand and pressing his warm lips to her knuckles, much like he did the first time they met at her ball. Unlike the first time, she felt her cheeks become hot, and her free hand nervously brushed a loose strand of golden hair behind her ear. His grin widened, and she wrenched her hand from his, feeling embarrassed with her own reaction.

"I don't understand," she stuttered, taking a step away from him out of caution and to clear her suddenly jumbled thoughts.

The prince – was he still a prince? - straightened up. Lola noticed that he was wearing something a prince most definitely _wouldn't _wear; a large gray t-shirt, faded blue jeans, and white sneakers. If she hadn't have seen him in the other realm, she would have guessed that he was born in the un-magical one. He looked so normal that she felt a sense of loss – she didn't know Prince Charles, but she missed his formal clothing and carefully brushed hair. Or maybe she just missed her home so much that she resented everything else. But whether she liked the new him or didn't, she couldn't deny that he looked good.

"I've missed you, Goldilocks," Charles admitted, looking down at her under his dark lashes. His long brown hair fell over his eyes in a heart-breakingly attractive way. "Your whole kingdom missed you. Everyone was so confused – there was just a black mist and when it cleared you and most the land was just... gone."

"Is my kingdom okay?" Lola demanded, her mind whirling at the thought of what happened to them. "The Forest – is it still the same? Who's taking care of my kingdom?"

"I was," Charles told her, taking a step forward and taking her hands in his. Lola's small pale ones disappeared into his, but she took comfort in the warmth. "But only until you got back, I promise."

"Thank you," Lola said, smiling up at him, but then a worry filled her mind and she tugged her hands free. "But the Forest. Everyone here thought it was gone until a couple of days ago. Is it any different? Is it dangerous over on the other side?"

Charles frowned and nodded. "Since you left the ogres have been taking over the Forest. The survivors have found a safe haven, but no one can travel far away from it without being torn to bits by some sort of monster. The safe haven... Goldilocks, I don't know what happened, but when I got back from gathering food, everyone was dead. Everyone... their hearts were torn from their chest by some sort of beast. What's left of your kingdom is in a frenzy, everyone is terrified."

Lola gulped. She knew who killed the survivors – Regina's mother, Cora. David had given her an update on what was happening with Snow and Emma, and he said that Cora was trying to get to Storybrooke. Lola didn't know why Regina's mother would kill the survivors, but she knew it was her doing.

"But if everyone is scared then what are you doing here?" Lola asked. "_How _did you get here? And why were her following me?"

Charles suddenly looked guilty, his face darkening. Lola suddenly realized how odd everything was – how off. If the survivors were in danger, then shouldn't their leader be with them at the moment? And even if the leader was looking for some kind of help, why would he be looking for it by following around a girl through a forest. Her arms crossed defensively around her chest, and a glare took form on her face.

"I know it sounds unbelievable, Your Highness," Charles said carefully, "but hear me out. I came into this realm by accident. We – the survivors and me – were burning the bodies of our dead, and some were my friends, so I needed time by myself." A dark look flashed across his face, making Lola wonder if someone he lost was more than just a friend. The thought was strangely unpleasant to her. "I told the others that I was going to get more wood since some of our houses were destroyed, but instead I went looking for the person who murdered them all...

"I found a fairy out there. She was being attacked by an ogre and I helped her. I was going to make her head to the safe haven, but she started asking questions, too many questions. At first I thought she was a spy or maybe even the person who killed my friends, but she said that she just wanted to help-"

"And you believed her?" Lola scoffed, wondering if the prince was either gullible or stupid.

"No," Charles rolled his eyes in annoyance. "But I listened to what she had to say. She knew what I was doing in the Forest all by myself, and she wanted to help. She had a flask of pixie dust and she said that she could make it so that it led me to help."

"To help?" Lola echoed. "Help for who? The survivors? You? Her?"

"To help me," Charles answered. "I don't know why it led me here."

"Led you?" Lola wondered. "What do you mean?"

"She asked if I wanted it, and I told her yes," the prince said. "So she emptied the bottle at my feet. It was so strange – it looked solid but it moved like liquid. It transformed into a portal, and I fell in. I ended up in this strange village with large houses and strange carriages. The portal had disappeared but the mist left a trail through the air pointing in this direction. It took me days to finally make it here, but through that entire time no one else saw the mist."

Lola knew how pixie dust worked, she had seen it done a million times before, but that wasn't what worried her. Pixie dust was a powerful thing, both dangerous and helpful, and even though Charles said that it was a fairy didn't mean that it was one.

"What did this fairy look like?" Lola asked carefully.

Charles blinked. "Well, nothing like I would have assumed a fairy looked like, if that's what you're asking. They're like regular people – not any more prettier than a normal person – except their as big as big hand and sparkly."

Lola sighed in relief. So it _was _a fairy. All fairies had to be good or they would be stripped of their wings, so it was a good thing for that, at least. Still, the reason the fairy did such a nice thing was questionable.

"Why did she help you?" Lola demanded.

"The same reason I helped her," Charles said. "I was a person in need."

Lola bit her bottom lip, thinking. What would someone gain from sending Charles to Storybrooke? What would _he _gain. As far as Lola knew, the only reason someone went to Storybrooke was for revenge, but why would Charles want revenge? Maybe on Regina – everyone wanted revenge on her – but then he would have been led to the Evil Queen's house, not in the woods where Lola had been hiding.

"Why were you following me, then?" the young queen challenged. "Why not just say hello?"

The prince blinked and actually blushed. The wind was blowing hard, so it could have been from the crisp cold, but Lola knew it was from ashamed embarrassment. It wasn't a good feeling to be caught spying on someone, she knew.

"Well, you look... _different_, from the last time I saw you," the prince admitted.

Lola blinked, and then glanced down at herself. When she had seen him she had been wearing a beautiful dress and she had been prim and polished like a newly made Barbie doll, but at the moment she was wearing a regular shirt with a worn out blue sweater, little blue shorts, and her old pair of sneakers. She looked nothing like the queen she was supposed so be. She was sure the wind did a number on her loose curly hair, too. She self-consciously ran her hand through the messy curls.

"I didn't recognize you," Charles continued guiltily. "And besides, I didn't really expect for you to be here, either. I had thought that the mist was sending me to the killer – I had to make sure you weren't dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Lola squawked back, insulted.

"Well, you did attack me with a branch," Charles pointed out.

"That was self defense! You shouldn't have been stalking me."

"Stalking," Charles scoffed. "You weren't doing anything interesting, anyway. What are you doing in the woods?"

"I'm homesick," the wind blew again, making the hairs on the young queen's arms stand up. She rubbed them unconsciously, looking around the empty forest. It was quiet, like it always was, but now that she knew that a whole village of people who thought they were safe had been slaughtered only a couple of days ago, the silence was spooky.

She looked back at the prince, who was gazing around the forest too. He was ruggedly handsome – when she had first met him, he was as uninteresting as the rest of the dignitaries she had met, but then he had spoken to her and everything had changed. She could have imagined herself marrying him, like her mother wished. Though she wouldn't have liked it at the time, she would have grown used to it, she knew. They would have learned to love each other, and they would have been good partners ruling the kingdom. But that didn't happen because she ran away, and the thought of what could have been would always be out of her reach, forever just a memory.

He felt her eyes on him and turned back to look at her. She had changed since he last saw her – _a lot_. She was taller, her features more defined now that she shed her baby fat. Her curly blonde hair was a mess and tumbled past her shoulders and hung down to the middle of her back. Her large gray eyes sat high on her pale face, her skin glowing like the moon. What she wore showed more skin than he was used to – the ladies back home wore floor-length skirts – but the view was great. He shook his head, clearing that thought. If he remembered Goldilocks correctly, she wasn't a normal girl, and he wasn't sure if her reaction to his thoughts would be a good one or a bad one.

"How long do you plan to stay here?" Goldilocks asked, her eyes still holding the suspicious look in her eyes that hadn't been there before. Charles felt a strange sense of loss fill him as he remembered the innocent princess she used to be, twirling around to the soft swan-like music as though it were second nature.

Charles shrugged the feeling and her question away. "Until I find the help the fairy meant for me to find."

"And what if you never find it," Goldilocks demanded.

Charles raised on eyebrow. "Where is your faith, my Queen?" he wondered. "Trust me, I will find the help I need. Now, where is 'here', anyhow? Don't tell me you live in the woods."

"Is that so strange?" Goldilocks shot back, a smirk playing at the corners of her bow-shaped lips. "I used to live in a palace in the middle of a forest. But no, I don't. Storybrooke is this way."

Charles felt anticipation build up inside of him. "Then lead the way, Your Majesty."

XXX

_The world was black around Rapunzel. The first thing that came to her was her sense of touch, and it came to her slowly. First she felt a dull ache in her head, like someone had banged her head into a tree, and then she felt soft cloth under her fingertips, and then hair in her face._

_She remembered meeting her ex-princess. The younger girl – too young to be chased by the Evil Queen – had been so beautiful that if she were her mother she would have wept with joy. The girl had been so terrified that she couldn't sit there and _not _help her._

_So she did what any woman would do – she hid the girl and lied when the Evil Queen asked where she was. The queen had believed her at first, moving on to the next lined up villager. There were so many people that it gave little Snow White just enough time to escape. But the Queen was insane with revenge, and she was going to kill everyone unless someone betrayed Snow – and Rapunzel's neighbor didn't want to die._

_He confessed everything to the queen; how Rapunzel had lied and had taken Snow in, how she gave her supplies for her long travel and had given her advice on where to go. He even pointed Rapunzel out in the crowd without even having to be asked._

_Rapunzel had said her prayers the moment the queen looked at her, but something amazing happened. As one, all her other neighbors moved in front of her and shielded the village girl with their bodies, hiding her from sight. A short man in the back had looked at her with dark eyes and mouthed one word: _go_._

_Rapunzel had taken off, not grabbing any of her things. She had ran for three days – three long tiring days, but the queen always found her. The memories came to her – she remembered the Dark One, the potion, the queen, and then being taken by the queen's guards. She had fought back, and the queen had flicked her wrist, and the next thing Rapunzel knew she was flying headfirst into a tree._

_Light beamed down on her eyes, and she blinked up at the world around her. She wasn't in a cell, that much was obvious. The room she was in was circular with a single window, a wooden dresser, a large bed she was laying on, a wardrobe, and the walls were mostly covered in bookshelves with thousands and thousands of books. The patches on the walls that weren't books were covered in plain white, uninteresting wallpaper._

_Rapunzel sat up in her bed, her bottom sinking a little in the soft cushion. If what she remembered was true, then she was even more bewildered. Why would the Evil Queen but her in such a lovely – if not strange – place?_

"_Confused?"_

_The cold tone sent a shiver up the village girl's spine, and she turned at the sound. The voice came from the single window, and the person standing at the window was smirking maliciously at the blonde girl._

"_Your Majesty," Rapunzel replied back coolly._

_The Evil Queen wore a different outfit. A ink black headdress with a matching silk dress that hugged every curve of her body, there was a slit at the bottom of her skirts that showed off one of her pale legs. The queen wore her usual batch of makeup – dark eyeshadow, blood red lipstick, and a thin cover of glitter._

"_I hope you like your new home," Regina drawled, walking further into the room and holding her hands up around the room. She wore high black heels that would have broke Rapunzel's ankles if she tried to walk in them. "I put a lot of thought into it."_

_Rapunzel swallowed her frustration. She never liked games, but lately that seemed to be all that everyone else liked – first Rumpelstiltskin with his baffling riddles, and now Regina with her twisted schemes. She wished that little Snow White never found her way on her doorstep, and she wished that the Evil Queen would just let go of whatever it was that was bothering her._

"_Just let me go," Rapunzel said. "We never have to cross paths again. All you have to do is let me go."_

_The Evil Queen's smile dropped, and her lips curled in disgust. "And let you get away with lying to me? I don't think so, village girl. For whatever reason, Rumpelstiltskin wants to keep you alive, and that makes you important. If he ever tries to defy me again it would be the end of you."_

"_I've never met him before that moment," Rapunzel insisted. "He makes deals with people, so I made a deal with him. I'm no more important than all the rest."_

"_He found you, Rapunzel," Regina said. "Not the other way around. That means he wants something from you."_

"_And why do you care?"_

"_I care because he messed with my affairs," Ragina snapped. "And now he's going to pay. Whatever he wants from you, he won't get."_

_Rapunzel shook her head in disgust. How can such a young woman, with her whole life ahead of her to live, be so bent on revenge? Rapunzel had spent her entire life wishing for an adventure, something outside of her village, but she had never had the money to do it. If she were a queen, she would have had the time of her life._

"_So what are you going to do?" The village girl sneered. "Keep me here forever? I'll escape."_

_Regina smiled again, her dark eyes glinting with glee. "Oh, really? Come here, Rapunzel, I want to show you something."_

_The Evil Queen gestured for the older blonde to get off the bed. Rapunzel carefully tested her feet on the surprisingly warm floor, and, discovering that her legs were strong enough to keep her up, she got to her feet. The world tilted around her for one moment, but straightened itself out. Shaking her head, she walked over to the Queen, who wrapped her arm around her shoulder and led her to the window._

_The window was plain and uninteresting. It was shaped as a half-an-oval with a love seat in front of it. It had no curtains or glass to close it, yet no uncomfortable draft slipped in. Actually, no wind at all – not even a sun beam, which was supposed to be blinding her at the moment. Alarmed, Rapunzel reached her arm out, but still she felt no breeze. It was as though she were sticking her arm in another room._

"_Oh, yes," Regina said, watching her. "While you're here you will not be able to touch or smell the world outside. Not an animal or the wind or even the sun. It's part of your curse. But don't worry, you can see the world grow around you."_

_Rapunzel forced herself not to show her despair. She wouldn't give the queen any satisfaction – none at all._

"_So that's what you wanted? To gloat?" The blonde snapped, turning to the Queen and away from the window._

"_No," Regina smiled, a wicked, evil smile that Rapunzel was starting to loathe. "Look again."_

_Rapunzel did as told, but this time she looked. She could see the tops of trees and even the tops of mountains. There were no villages in sight – only forest and hill – but that wasn't all. She had to be seventy feet up – higher than Evil Queen's castle – too high to jump, too high to scream for help. No one would hear her, no one would see her, and if she tried to climb down she could slip and die. She leaned out of the window, hardly daring to belief it – her castle was made of smooth blocks of stones._

_She jerked back into the window and ran deeper into the room and towards the door she had seen. She ignored the Queen who was chuckling behind her and wrenched it open. She saw a steep staircase and tumbled down it._

_The walk wasn't long, and soon she found her way into a shallow room. It was filled with stoves and a refrigerator. It was an ugly room with a little square table and a lone chair stuffed in the corner. She shook her head in exasperation and ran further down the stairs, only to find herself in a bathroom. There were no more staircases. No windows. No ropes._

_She was stuck._

"_No," Rapunzel collapsed to the floor, her head in her hands. "No, _no_!"_

_She felt a comforting hand on her shoulder and she looked up. The Queen was leaning over her with a soft smile, her eyes warm. Rapunzel expected nice words, but what she got instead was, "You should have thought twice before defying me, village girl."_

XXX

Lola and Charles were walking to Granny's diner. Lola didn't know why, but she didn't want to show him her house, in fear that he might want to stay there. Maybe it was because she never lived with a boy before, and she didn't want to be alarmed by his guy habits; or maybe, despite what he said, she still didn't trust him.

Snow and Emma were stuck in the Enchanted Forest and had been trying to find a way back in days, and he somehow managed to stumble across a fairy who could easily help him travel realms? It was far fetched and seemed unlikely.

Still, he was there, and she wouldn't figure out his secrets by becoming his enemy.

"So this is where everyone disappeared?" Charles looked around the small town, which was cute but not amazing. "I can't imagine the Evil Queen wanted to live here?"

"Live," Lola scoffed in disgust. "More like trapped. Imagine staying here without memory for twenty eight years – _stuck _as a sixteen-year-old. Everyone treated me like a little kid."

Charles glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes, and Lola realized who she was talking to. Though when they met he was a teenager, too, now he had to be either nineteen or twenty. He was an adult, like everyone else, and she was standing next to him like a whiny little sister. She felt her cheeks get hot, but pushed the embarrassed feeling aside.

She was a Queen, not a flustered teen. She had no time to worry about her looks or boys. Especially questionable boys with brown eyes.

_I love brown eyes_, she thought unconsciously.

She remembered Willis Bear, and how he had fooled her so easily by throwing around compliments like they were facts. He had had brown eyes, and they had looked so sweet to her. Henry had brown eyes, too. And now Charles had brown eyes.

Her mind flashed back to a boy she had met when she ran away, the boy who _didn't _have brown eyes. Somehow, she had fell for him the most.

"Goldilocks? Goldilocks!" She felt her shoulder being shook lightly, and she blinked back to real life. "You dazed out for a second," Charles told her. "You okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," she replied quickly. "This is Granny's. She can fix you up a room. Do you have money?"

"Enough to stay for a while," Charles said.

"Good," Lola said. "And before you get confused – people around here call me Lola. Lola Lorie."

"Really?" Charles wrinkled his nose in confusion, a habit Lola found herself smiling about. "Why?"

"We all lost our memories when we came here," Lola said. "Regina changed our names without us even knowing."

"So you don't go by Goldilocks?"

"I do. But... just so you won't get confused if someone called me something different."

Charles raised his eyebrows and smiled down at Lola, who felt small in his shadow. Looking up at him, and how the sun made the outline of his hair gold, she couldn't help but see that he looked every bit like the prince she had seen leave her garden all those years ago. She found herself holding her breath when his lips parted, ready to say something. Only-

"Hi, Lola," Red passed by her with a smile, her long dark hair swishing behind her as she walked into her granny's shop. "Hi, stranger."

"Hi, Red," Lola said back, blinking out of her daze and stepping away from the prince. When the waitress disappeared, the young blonde looked at the prince and said, "That's Granny's granddaughter. Red Riding Hood. Heard of her?"

"Can't say that I have," Charles replied. "Odd name. Regina changed that too?"

"Yes, into Ruby."

Charles rolled his eyes in frustration.

Lola, who had been having a bit of fun, felt a twinge of sympathy, and grabbed one of his hands comfortingly. "Don't worry, Charles, I'll explain everything and everyone to you over coffee."

He nodded gratefully, and they went inside the diner. They were met with many 'hellos' to Lola, who waved back and nodded to the people. She wasn't friends with them, but she helped them, and they appreciated it. It wasn't surprising to Charles, who knew that she was a queen, so therefore she was popular.

Lola led him to the waitress where Ruby and Granny were taking orders. The moment they sat, Granny came bustling over.

"We'll have two coffees," Lola said to her. "And a room – for him."

"Really?" Granny raised her thick eyebrows, her face skeptical as she looked Charles up and down. Lola knew that this would be the reaction the prince got – all newcomers were looked at with unease, even Emma. "Who're you?"

"My name is Charles," the prince smiled his best smile. The dashing look he gave sent the butterflies flurrying again in the young blonde's stomach, and she had to look down at her hands to calm them. She could not – _would not _have a crush on a boy.

"He's new in town," Lola forced out through gritted teeth. She didn't want to say it, knowing that it would arouse suspicion and questions, and it wasn't like she _wanted _Charles to feel unwelcome by all the looks he would get, but she had to protect her towns from dangers – and right at the moment he could be a danger. "He just came from the Enchanted Forest."

Charles looked at her out of the corner of his eyes, his expression hooded. She wasn't sure if he was confused, betrayed, or amused by the information she was giving. The unknown didn't reassure her. She looked back at Granny, who was still inspecting Charles.

"Alright, come on," Granny said, gesturing over to the back of the diner.

Charles followed her, getting looks from the people nearby who had heard. The coffees were brought by Ruby.

"Thank you," Lola said, sniffing her cup before taking a large gulp.

"Where did you find him?" Ruby demanded. "Did he just walk into town?"

"No," Lola frowned. "He was following me."

Quickly and quietly, Lola told her the story of how they had met when she was fourteen at her ball, and then what happened only moments before in the woods. She explained that there was no reason for him to be dangerous, but that didn't mean that they all should trust him right away.

"You don't trust him?" Ruby asked. "Not even a little?"

"I don't _know _him," Lola admitted. "I can only trust him as much as you can right now."

"Meaning he's another mystery," Ruby sighed. "And another problem."

"Exactly," Lola nodded. "Keep the whole fairy dust in the tunnel thing a secret, okay? Don't tell him where Regina lives, either. If he wants revenge then she's the one he's want it from, and we don't need to scrape his remains from her floor."

"Gotcha," Ruby smirked. "You know he's sort of cute," she began, her eyes glinting. "And he likes you."

"Yeah," Lola sighed, as though uninterested even though her stomach was doing back flips. "Too bad I'm not interested." She took a sip of her coffee.

"Mhmm."

XXX

_Rapunzel read through her third book, her mind numb. She had been stuck in the tower for five days, and she still didn't have a plan on escaping. She couldn't imagine living in her tower forever – stuck reading and reading, gaining more and more knowledge but not being able to do anything with it._

_She thought back to Rumpelstiltskin, and how he had given her a potion so that she could 'escape her fate', but what was the potion doing? Nothing!_

_It was probably water, she thought. That's stupid scaly, bug-eyed creature. He had tricked her. He was probably bored and wanted to doom her in this tower forever._

"_Lying toad," She threw the book across the room and buried her face in her arms, curling into a ball on the loveseat beside the window._

_She sat by it every day, hoping that a breeze would come in and ruffle her hair, but none came. She heard the birds chirp, and when one landed on her window she would try to stroke the soft feathers, but they would always fly away before her fingers could come in contact with them. Stupid, beautiful birds._

"_Ah, ah, ah, Dearie," a familiar voice giggled from inside her room. "No feeling sorry for yourself!"_

_Rapunzel whipped her head around so quickly the back of her head hit the side of her window. There, sitting on her soft bed, was Rumpelstiltskin, carrying in one hand the book she had just thrown._

"_You!" Rapunzel got to her feet and glared down at the wretched creature. "You tricked me!"_

_The Dark One tilted his head as though he were thinking, before shaking his head. "No I didn't."_

_The blonde girl's pretty face twisted into a look of deep hatred. "Yes, you did! You said the potion would help me-"_

"_'Escape your fate,' yes, I remember. I'm the one who told you," The Dark One laughed again, getting to his feet and strolling over to her as though he didn't have a care in the world. He probably didn't, since he was immortal. "But I said 'help', Dearie. The potion gives you what you need, it doesn't do the work for you."_

"_What do you mean?" Rapunzel said dubiously._

"_Mhmhm," Rumpelstiltskin laughed with his mouth closed, as though her confusion was delightful. "You don't notice anything different about yourself?"_

_Rapunzel frowned, looking down at her familiar feet. When she looked back up, Rumpelstiltskin gestured towards her full length mirror, and and walked towards it. At first she stared into her familiar face. Everything was the same about it – the large cheekbones, the pointed chin, the dark eyebrows. The only thing that changed was her skin, which used to be healthily tan, and was now pale white from lack of sun._

_But then she shifted, and her hair shifted with her. Her hair used to be light blonde and wavy, all the way up to her knees in length, but now it was the color of gold, brushed the floor, and pin-straight and thick. She hadn't washed it, but it gleamed with healthiness._

_She frowned at herself. "My hair... it's different."_

"_Yes," Rumpelstiltskin said, making her jump. She had forgotten he was there. "The potion made your hair magical."_

_Her wonderment vanished into anger, and she stomped her foot in frustration. "How is that going to help me?"_

"_Your hair is magical. It won't split, it won't tangle, it won't break, and it will keep growing and growing longer and longer every day," Rumpelstiltskin said, making twirly hand-gestures. "So long, in fact, that you'll be able to tie it to your bed, and be able to climb yourself all the way down the tower. Once you hit the grow – snip! You cut your hair off, and you are free from you fate."_

"_That sounds like a lot of waiting," Rapunzel frowned. "Can't you just let me go?"_

"_I have my reasons," Rumpelstiltskin said in way of answer, his eyes gleaming with more knowledge than should be allowed for just one man._

"_What are your reasons?" Rapunzel demanded. "What is it you want from me?"_

_The Dark One smiled. "Patience is a virtue, Dearie!"_

"_But-"_

_In a puff of black smoke, Rumpelstiltskin was gone, leaving a very confused village girl behind him. She turned back to the girl in the mirror, marveling at her new hair. Even as she watched, she could see it growing ever so slowly – so slowly that it could have been just a trick of the light. She touched it with one unnaturally pale hand, waiting for the day that she could save herself._

XXX

Charles nodded and smiled at everything the old lady said, saying all the polite words that he could. He knew that the people wouldn't trust him yet, he knew that Goldilocks didn't trust him, but he would get them to. He needed for them to trust him, or it would mean the end – not for him, but for _her_.

If Cora killed his Princess Jasmine, he wouldn't know what to do. As he laid down on his new bed, he closed his eyes and thought of her. He loved everything about her – from her long, thick hair that was so black it almost looked blue, to her large, almond-shaped brown eyes, to her sharply angled face, and to her odd taste in clothing.

He remembered how he had been beyond annoyed by her condescending attitude and her way of assuming everything, but after a while he began to enjoy the other things about her. Her genuine wonderment of everything around the world, her laugh, her easy nature once she knew him.

He loved _her_.

But now Cora had her, and he would do anything to get her back.

Even fool a girl he had met years ago at a ball. He felt guilty about tricking Goldilocks – she was definitely a special girl, but he had to do what he had to do.

He felt something vibrate in his back pocket and dug out the sea shell Cora had given him. Looking into it, he saw her face looking up at him. He hated her – from her brown hair all the way down to her shoes.

"What do _you _want?" Charles snapped grumpily.

"Now is that any way to treat the person keeping your girlfriend alive?" Cora said back, emotionless.

"Fine," Charles said through gritted teeth. "What do _you _want, Your Wickedness?"

Cora smiled as though they were just friends messing around. "I want to know how you're doing. Find anything?"

"I made it to the town," Charles said. "But nothing else. I'm just settling in."

"This is taking longer then necessary, Prince Charles. You better hurry, I don't want anything unfortunate to happen to little Jasmine."

"Hey, tomorrows a new day. I'll find out what you need."

"You've better."


End file.
